Pokemon Next
by Noahkeeper768
Summary: Pokemon trainers are the true elite of the world strong, fast, cunning, always looking to perfect their technique in the world of Pokemon. Hanna Burton is ten years old and believes herself worthy to try, this is a chronicle of her adventures
1. Round 1:The journey begins

**Pokemon Next**

Round 1: The journey begins

In times of legend there were magical creatures that wandered the lakes and forest known as majuu. They were feared by the people because of their magical abilities, the strongest of them were passed down into legend and others worshiped as deities and ruled most of the world because of it. Until four hundred years ago a scientist from pallet town named Professor Shrewsbury dedicated his life to researching the majuu of the Kanto region he discovered that these creatures were not monsters at all but some were quite friendly some were funny some were mean and others grumpy he felt the potential of these creatures to better mankind was astronomical and so he created the pokeball a small wooden ball created from hollow acorns forged by ghost majuu, with these pokeballs he could carry these creatures in his pocket and transport them anywhere. It was decided that because of the tainted history that came with the name majuu and the new invention of the pokeball which would be stored in pockets the creatures became known as pocket monsters Pokemon for short.

With their new name and popularity new uses came too for the Pokemon they were used for more than research and industrial purposes soon the uppercrust of society began to adopt the creatures as companions. Owning a Pokemon at this time for uses other than research or work was rare but showed a clear sign of wealth one of these wealthy men was Johnathan Goodshow who saw the natural desire the creatures had to battle and compete for dominance and established the Pokemon League. Using his wealth he turned Pokemon into a widespread phenomenon the league was dedicated to finding those who had the best skills concerning training and fighting alongside Pokemon.

When the title first appeared trainers were a rare thing they numbered maybe a couple hundred over the course of the next century the were as common as farmers. From peasant to purebred anyone who dreamed of it could become a Pokemon trainer, they were considered heroes in modern times they were the brave souls who refused to conform to the nine to five everyday life.

One of these reverer's was Hanna Burton of Floccesy town. Hanna had only dreamed of becoming a trainer since the fateful day when she was only six years old on vacation at her grandparents home in Johto she had wandered too far and was nearly pulled into the ocean by a large Tentacruel in Cherrygrove city but before the creature could properly drag her into the ocean a Gyarados devoured the creature and atop its head was it's trainer a man wearing a cap who had the most powerful but serene gaze she had ever encountered.

The man looked down at her and with a nod of her cap said "Be careful around the water Pokemon look for weakness in people and if they can find it they'll be sure to take advantage of it." after that he rode off into the sunset atop his Gyarados.

Hanna lived her life from that point on with one goal in mind 'Become a great Pokemon trainer' her parents were her greatest obstacle though caring and understanding they still firmly held to the idea that Hanna was a little girl their little girl and the world was a dangerous place.

Still steadfast Hanna brought the topic up at every dinner near her birthday starting at age seven but every time the answer was the same "No we need too much help around here." was her fathers answer said each time with a loud belch following but like most young girls she was tenacious and her pleas brought her parents to a compromise "Once you turn ten you can go wild." that was the moment she began marking her calendar with Jigglypuff stickers to countdown the years.

Hanna's dream was known to everyone who lived in the town and one boy who had developed a precocious crush on her took every opportunity he could to exploit this to gain her favor, he introduced himself as the grandson of the then current champion Alder, he certainly looked the part with his fiery red hair being blown by every stray wind it could catch. He boasted to her his wide knowledge of Pokemon and what he called the 'trainers heart' all of it rather unimpressive to her he remained as an annoyance in her life until he decided to put his own skills to the test and embark on a journey four months before her tenth birthday.

Up until her tenth birthday after first convincing her parents that her becoming a trainer was a good idea she needed them to buy her a Pokemon to accompany her on her journey her first choice was obvious "I want a Gyarados." she said one sleepy morning watching her father stock the shelves in the small pokemart that was owned by the family, he very quietly placed a large package of Purrloin brand Pokemon food on one of the bottom shelves before he replied calmly "Gyarados are mighty expensive and large not to mention mean I don't think that's a very good choice." she grumbled putting her hands in the air "What about a Milotic? They are super pretty and one of the champions has one."

Her father looked down at her and sighed "Those are really rare aren't they? I don't think anyone on our salary could afford something like that." she put a finger to her chin to think "Hmmmm...oh what about an Eevee?" her father gave a nervous laugh "Those are also rare and you might want something a little tougher to help you in a pinch." after being told no for the third time Hanna stomped off to her room to watch TV with her head buried in her pillow.

Of the close to forty children in the town their was only one other girl who aspired to be a trainer like her Lora Willcott her parents owned the famous Floccesy Ranch on the edge of town and she was fairly wealthy by the standards of the sleepy town this as well as being gifted with naturally good looks made her very popular. It was hard not to be jealous considering her and Hanna shared a birthday and the competition was fierce and every year they had the same number of attendees Hanna's party:two Loras party:thirty-eight. Hanna would often sit on top of the roof of her home and look at Lora playing with the Mareep on her ranch eating bitter chocolate, everyday though her admirer would follow her to the roof and reassure her with a toothy grin "Don't worry Hanna you'll be a great trainer someday im sure of it." the reassurance didn't make a difference the boy left and soon Lora would too.

On the day of her tenth birthday Hanna slept in this was it her parents were firmly obligated to keep their promise and buy her a Pokemon and any moment they would burst through that door with smiles and gifts to celebrate her venturing off into the world but half past eleven and nothing.

"They didn't forget my birthday did they?" Hanna thought applying shampoo in the shower scrubbing her auburn hair she continued to think of possible explanations for how this could have happened to her "No way they forgot today is too important." Hanna continued her thoughts all the way out of the shower and downstairs once there she found her parents sitting comfortably with her mother brewing tea in the kitchen and her father lounging on the couch watching football. Her father barely noticed her walk down the stairs and he raised his hand to wave at her "Happy birthday Hanna." he said calmly, this was not the ideal birthday she had in mind not at all.

"Uhm thanks." she weakly replied looking at her father expectantly for a few seconds before he sat up as if remembering he had left something in the oven too long "Dear!" he called to his wife who hurriedly brought out a backpack and sat it infront of Hanna, her expression was one of confusion until she began rummaging through the backpack and found everything she had ever wanted a trainers license, spending money and five dirty but still functioning pokeballs she spent her time enthusiastically opening and closing them despite knowing nothing would come out, she struck a pose of dignified excellence and strutted around the living room like a supermodel her moment of bliss was short lived as she remembered something her parents had brought before her everything essential to being a trainer except a Pokemon.

"So that it?" she asked looking at her parents with a hidden smile.

The two of them looked at one another before bringing out a small pokeball that they both sat on the table.

"Your father and I decided on a Pokemon that was reliable strong and would come in handy anytime you needed extra help."

Hanna dived toward the table like a mad dog before grabbing the pokeball excited yet fearful of what was inside "Strong...reliable." she chanted In her head before throwing the pokeball and seeing what had come out, in front of her looked soft like ice cream it was small bipedal blue-eyed and wore an exceedingly cheery expression it was cream and pink colored with large ears that had long curled extensions that reached just below its shoulders it took its time outside of the ball to look around curiously admiring the soft colors of kitchen with small finger to its chin before returning its gaze to Hanna who frowned.

"Strong...reliable." Hanna repeated quietly "This is a joke right?"

Her mother gave a weak smile before speaking "A Gyarados was unrealistic you knew that, and Eevee are very expensive even now. Audino are fairly common and easy to manage this one will do you good im sure."

Her father snapped his fingers "That's right you'll need clothes it's rough out there so you are going to need sturdy clothes made from tough fabric to survive out there." he went into a back room and pulled out a set of folded clothes along with a black hat and an xtransceiver.

Hanna returned the Audino to it's pokeball before going upstairs to change into her new clothes she was not defeated yet though the fluffy Pokemon was just that;fluffy but it was still rightfully hers and she knew the greatest task of a master trainer was to turn small fluffy weak Pokemon into strong capable fighters that would stand by their trainers without question this was her goal from the beginning.

On her way back down stairs her parents awaited she walked to the door quietly her parents had been doting but they were still her parents and though going on this journey had been her dream for years she would for the first time be venturing off into the world without them.

"Be sure to call." her mother said quietly.

Hanna kept one hand in the door way and looked back at her mother with a smile "I will." she left the house and walked down the road and as the clock tower located at the towns center had began to ring she smiled and walked bravely into Route nineteen it was small it was what separated Aspertia city from Floccesy and on foot they were about a three day walk from each other.

Twenty minutes into her harrowing journey Hanna had encountered her first wild Pokemon a cheerful Pidove hopping around pecking trees she smiled devilishly and released her Audino from it's pokeball the small pink furry Pokemon looked very confused Hanna bent down and whispered to it "Ok so we need to train so you can get big and strong and we gotta beat that guy over there up so you can do that ok?" the small Pokemon kept a hand to it's chin "Audino." it squeaked back in a manner that told Hanna it only half understood what she was talking about.

"Ok Audino use pound." Hanna commanded softly, her Pokemon looked at her then at the Pidove and seemingly reluctant ran over and punched it off of the tree it was resting in, the small bird got up and shook angrily diving at Audino who failed to dodge its beak colliding into it's soft tummy knocking it to the ground "Pi!" the bird screeched triumphantly in the air.

"Audino get up and use pound again!" Hanna yelled this time and her small companion stood to her feet and angrily punched at the bird who dodged every time as it floated in the air it came back for a quick gust that knocked Audino back to the ground the bird laughed before flying off too high in the sky to be chased after.

Hanna had fought her first Pokemon and lost, despite the discouraging situation Audino hopped up and walked up to Hanna who was about ready to tear out her hair "Darn it!" she gritted her teeth and kept walking small Audino following behind happily.

A bit further up the road Hanna spotted another Pokemon a Purrloin lazily eating an apple with a look of moderate interest "Ok this one can't fly off." she said to no one in particular looking down at her Audino she raised a fist to the air and said "Ok lets go again use pound on that thing."

"Dino." the Pokemon nodded and ran over to the lazing cat and punched it with her tiny hands knocking away its apple it caught its balance after hitting a tree and growled angrily "Purrrr." the small cat extended its sharp claws to attack Audino who simply took the hit with so much as flinching "Pound." Hanna commanded her Audino who complied and punched the cat who hissed and ran into a nearby bush "No you don't" Hanna smirked and ran after the small cat.

The creature was fast much faster than Hanna or her Audino but they refused to give up the chase the Purrloin was crafty climbing up a small hill that took Hanna and Audino much longer to traverse but upon reaching the top it was cornered. Hanna grinned with her Audino readily behind her she confidently pointed a finger at the small cat ready to issue the order when purple streaks dashed through the bushes all around them.

The nature of the situation was now very apparent this was a trap and Hanna had walked right into it. A large group of nasty hissing Purrloin surrounded them on all sides.

"This can't be happening." Hanna grumbled her Audino now glued to her leg out of fear "Strong and reliable...right." the group encroached slowly before stopping cold in their tracks only a foot away from Hanna frozen in fear.

Hanna looked around and found nothing to be afraid of that was until she looked up, a small cloud of gas with a face stared down at the group of Purrloin and laughed maniacally Hanna fell to the ground joining the group of Purrloin with a look of fear plastered on her face, the creature continued to laugh its large eyes began to glow purple it's gaze physically extended to the Purrloin before who all fell to the ground with a collective thump.

The ball of energy then looked down at Hanna laughing once again before drawing out its long tongue and slowly descending to approach her. This was surely the worst start she could have imagined for herself the day she decided to become a trainer


	2. Round 2:Sharpen your sword

**Pokemon Next**

Round 2:Sharpen your sword

The ball of energy looked down at Hanna with a menacing grin as it began to descend soon it was laughing and showing off its tiny sharp fangs it was now eye level with Hanna who was shaking her Audino had taken to hiding underneath her shirt the creature circled around them a few times making the most it could out of Hanna's terror filled face before pulling out its long tongue and slathering it all over her face this was the most uncomfortable thing she had experienced in her life until this point its tongue was freezing cold and wet as well as thick it gave off quite the unpleasant aroma so strong it caused her to fall to the ground in place unable to move.

"Kana!"

The creature stopped licking and turned to the sound of the voice, out of the bushes appeared a young boy who it ran to immediately crying out happily as it floated over to him "Gas." the boy had quickly finished the reunion in time to notice Hanna on the ground "You okay?" he asked looking down at her, Hanna's face was frozen in shock her Audino had released itself from under her shirt to poke her face a few times.

Hanna had managed to come back to life after a few more pokes from her Audino who she angrily pushed away before examining herself in disgust, being covered in the saliva of a floating ball of energy with a sadistic grin was not very appealing. Turning to notice the boy sitting next to the purple ball who was still smiling at her with the same creepy expression she narrowed her eyes "This thing yours?" the boy rubbed the back of his head and laughed "Kana...yeah she is mine."

"Hmph well you should teach...whatever that _thing _is to behave itself." Hanna angrily said pointing her finger at the monster.

The boy stood and offered Hanna his hand so that she could do the same "I'm really sorry Kana is the best little ghost Pokemon you could ever meet on most days but sometimes she still has to be just a...ghost Pokemon." the boys halfhearted explanation kept things far from settled in Hanna's eyes the boy sensed this and did his best to keep the conversation going "Name's Jack by the way you have obviously met my ghost Pokemon Kana."

"Hanna is my name."

Jack looked down at the cute ball of fluff next to her and tickled it's ears Audino seemed to greatly enjoy this treatment "And what's this little ones name?" Jack asked just in time for Hanna to angrily snatch the Pokemon away from him "Audino...her name is just Audino."

"Didn't give her a name?" the boy questioned with a puzzled look, Hanna had been a trainer for about an hour now and had already seemingly made a mistake. Does everyone do that. How common is it, she thought to herself before answering "No..."

Jack laughed "You must be one of those bare bones trainers old fashioned and all that?" he continued to laugh offering his hand to Audino who gratefully accepted it "So you caught an Audino that's pretty unusual they are hard to beat in a fight very sturdy. You must have an amazing team."

Hanna could not discern if their was sincerity in the boys words the thought of her soft pink rabbit afraid of it's own shadow being tough was inconceivable were here parents telling her the truth when they said she was strong and reliable "She is my starter...and my entire team." Hanna said begrudgingly biting her tongue as she did.

"Oh...that's fine too now you have a great tank."

Hanna stood and watched her Audino play with the boy enviously she bit her tongue before speaking "So what about you is...Kana your starter?" Jack looked up at her and nodded "Yeah I dunno if you can tell but I ain't from round here I come from the Kanto region where I met Kana and just started my journey a few days ago."

A stroke of genius was all she would accept calling it "A new trainer like me...with a ghost type too...Audino are normal and ghost type attacks don't work on them." she pieced together her thoughts slowly before opening her mouth to speak "Battle me!" she yelled, the boy was a bit puzzled with his hand still stroking Audino "You...sure about that." Jack spoke to her in a way that did not betray his image thus far but his tone was low and cold but Hanna had ignored these thoughts and pressed "Yes! Audino come here." Jack smiled and Kana matched his expression though obviously her teeth were much larger.

"Your all out of luck Audino isn't effected by your attacks, use pound." Hanna commanded her tiny Audino balled it's fist and punched at Kana slipping right through her the "Gas!" Kana laughed before receiving the order from her trainer "Sludge bomb." Kana happily complied and with a laugh launched a glob of black sludge at Audino once it made contact it exploded on her skin and knocked her to the ground covered in the sludge.

"Hanna... you were right Audino isn't effected by Kana's ghost type moves but it is effected by poison type attacks." Jack said raising his hand for Kana to stop attacking she complied calmly standing next to her trainer "I don't think a fight between us is fair at the moment, No worries though Audino are well known to be very intelligent and can learn plenty of moves."

"How do you know all these things haven't you only been training a few days too?" Hanna interrogated grabbing her half conscious Audino.

Jack pulled out a small bud shaped pink fruit and tossed it to Hanna "That's a pecha berry it will cure Audino's poison." Hanna looked down at her small Audino who's color was fading before frantically shoving the berry down it's throat.

"I don't really know much but these things are the basics Hanna you are going to need to know these things sooner or later."

Hanna mumbled and returned her Audino to it's pokeball, looking at Jack with a stare that matched his Gastly before speaking "You have to take responsibility for this you know." Jack looked flustered and felt flustered too "Responsibility?" he repeated. Hanna was quick to nod before walking up to him and shoving her pokeball against his chest "You hurt Audino you'll escort me to Aspertia."

"I will?"

Hanna leaned in only inches away from his face "You will." Jack and Kana both laughed at her merrily "I'm just as new as you Hanna I only know this stuff because my parents run a resort near Victory road so I have spent plenty of time with the Pokemon my parents take care of not to mention Kana."

"So what else can you tell me?" Hanna sat down and looked up at Jack with an inquisitive eye though it pained her to admit defeat so early she saw Jack as a chance at gaining what she believed to be unbiased knowledge.

Jack scratched his chin before bashfully continuing "Uh...well first things first is your Audino it seems like the only move you have used with it thus far is pound which is an excellent move for a beginner but Audino's strength lies in its toughness and wide type coverage, you can teach an Audino pretty much any type of move."

"So what's a good start?"

"Naturally Audino instinctively have the ability to heal themselves and others so keep that in mind and give it moves to stall out the opponent who can't."

Hanna gasped listening she was so surprised "Audino can do all that?"

Jack considered for the second if he were being tricked but the look of wonder in the girls eyes convinced him she was utterly genuine all he could think was 'People start out Pokemon journeys like this' but he put these thoughts aside "Yes _she _can."

"She?" The topic of gender never occurred to Hanna but as far as she had known _all _bred starters were male to assure they were tough but as these thoughts passed her stream of consciousness she realized how silly they sounded and decided to keep to herself.

"Yeah...look the Aspertia gym leader is a normal type user so there is no clear advantage for you starting with a normal type so you should take this time to really get Audino into shape that or catch a fighting type...which sadly aren't often found in these parts."

"Yeah!" Hanna raised her fist in excitement but the next couple of hours were aggravating, Audino was simply unaccustomed to battle she fought a Pidove that she ended up healing and took the time to look back at Hanna curiously after issuing certain commands but for her efforts she learned double slap and used it to great effect. Comparatively despite his claim that he was a trainer just starting his journey Jack and Kana were like a well oiled machine she followed his commands to the letter and took the time from training to occasionally hover to Hanna and her Audino just to scare them.

The other thing important thing Hanna learned was the importance of sturdy clothes her parents did their best to reinforce in only three days she had fallen off of small hills been attacked by rabid Pokemon and had apples fall on her head from nowhere and felt the only thing keeping her alive were the clothes her parents had bought her she would have to remember to thank them next time they decided to call.

Reaching Aspertia city wasn't as easy as Hanna had first imagined but upon reaching the city Jack had insisted upon the idea they head straight to the gym instead of taking time to rest at the Pokemon center but three days was not long to have been on a journey and facing gym leaders was the main intended goal of a trainer as such she felt it was not time and that she was not ready, this was expressed clearly to Jack but he gave a simple smile and replied "I'll go first so you don't have to be nervous." his Gastly mimicked his expression and made a sound resembling a coo.

The gym located in the backyard of a small trainer's school was very lively with children running around in every direction and friendly battles taking place on the front steps it gave off the atmosphere of being friendly and warm.

Hanna felt at ease a place like this would surely make for an easy first win but on her perfectly painted canvas their was a big brown smudge walking out of the gym happily Oshawott by her side was Lora "Oh god." Hanna grumbled freezing as she saw the girl Jack looked down at her noticing the sudden change in demeanor he leaned over and whispered "Do you know that pretty girl over there?" he whispered into her ear. The real sting didn't hit until the girl noticed her though and sprinted over to her grabbing her hands cheerfully "Hanna! I just knew you'd start your own journey too."

"Yeah..." Hanna mumbled in reply Lora took no notice of her mumbling and continued chatting cheerily "All the kids said you wouldn't have the money to go out on a journey yourself but I said I just knew you would right after Benga left I was sure of it. Oh who's this?" Lora made her way to grabbing Jack's hand and intently observing his Gastly trying desperately to grab it in her hands "Wow a Gastly these are really rare in Unova."

Jack was getting surprisingly used to all the attention he had been getting from girls lately and answered the girl with a smile "Yeah i'm from the Kanto region."

"I bet you guys are going to challenge the gym leader, total pushover me and Oshawott beat alll of his Pokemon, he was so impressed he let me stay and teach a class on trainer relationships."

Jack whistled impressively "You must have really knocked him down a peg hopefully you softened him up for us."

Hanna could not let this happen she had at last found someone to be focused almost solely on her and already Lora had began the process of digging her fingers into him she nervously brought out her pokeball in order to break up the flow of conversation "L-Lora look at my cool Pokemon." she dropped the ball her Audino came out drooling in it's sleep, obviously not very flattering for Hanna but Lora was still as cheerful as ever but whispered as not to disturb the sleeping Pokemon "Adorable." she grinned "Osha." her oshwawott chimed merrily.

Hanna remained silent the entire time purely out of embarrassment even as Lora took her leave she simply offered a silent wave as she skipped off Jack leaned over giving the girl a wave and whispered into Hanna's ears "She was nice." he said happily Hanna internally screamed in annoyance "Yeah the best."


	3. Round 3:Toxic Friendship

**Pokemon Next**

Round 3:Toxic friendship

The trainer school that contained the gym was large and sprawling with students all dressed neat and tidy like private school students, they were energetic as all hell though not a single person inside was stationary after asking a few students where the leader was Jack and Hanna were quickly pointed in the direction of one of the classrooms, Jack was impatient so he opened the door without a second thought.

"So what's going to be done to deal with these guys?"

Inside the room there were three people two of them standing and the third sitting in his chair staunchly they looked serious Jack had obviously interrupted something important but he paid no mind to this "Which one of you is Cheren?" the question got a brow raise from the boy sitting in his chair, he stood and said proudly "I am."

"Good, you should know the drill by now." Jack was cocky for the first time since Hanna had met him. What happened to the nice boy from earlier who helped teach her about how to properly use Audino.

Cheren was not amused but he adjusted his tie slowly and shot back quickly "Are you both trainers?" he looked at Hanna with his cold gaze it was enough to frighten her but then again most things were, a simple nod told him all he needed to know and he looked to one of the students in the room a girl "I think we should make it a double battle since the both of you are so eager."

Eager? Hanna thought to herself with a mental frown she was terrified of stepping foot in the gym in the first place and besides that she was supposed to watch Jack battle first, she was supposed to get a feel for gym battles, this was a clear deviation from the plan and a wholly unwelcome one.

The actual gym was located in the back of the school it was a plain field of dirt and gravel the chalk that outlined the battlefield was smeared and fading beneath the wind shifted dirt below Hanna felt herself very unprepared and looked to Jack tugging his arm like a toddler "I don't know if I can do this." she whimpered the boy looked down at her with eyes of burning fire, he put a hand over her head to pat it "Don't worry just follow my lead he'll be a total pushover." the anticipation of battle was doing things to Jack and Hanna felt for the first time like she was in the company of a real trainer his fool hearty confidence gave her confidence.

After reaching the field Cheren and his apprentice took a firm stance on the opposite end from where Jack and Hanna stood the third apprentice who had been in their company stood on a platform at the end of the field he raised his hand affirmatively "This will be a one round double battle each trainer may only use one Pokemon. Begin."

Jack's confident smile quickly turned into a devilish grin "Kana!" he called, Hanna looked all around the field noticing their was no pokeball in his hands where could Gastly possibly come from and then came the stomach churning pain Kana had entered the field from the ground below phasing through Hanna's stomach as she took her place in front of Jack. Hanna hastily pulled out her pokeball before throwing it "Audino go!" at the same time Cheren looked to the girl next to him who smiled confidently "Just like we practiced Serena." in perfect synch the two let out their Pokemon from Cheren a tiny Lillipup and from Serena came a tiny Minccino who flexed being released from it's ball.

Lillipup was quick to attempt a tackle attack on Audino but Hanna had learned the important lesson that a Pokemon cannot be harmed if it does not get hit "Dodge, and then doubleslap." she commanded Audino was quick to comply and the small puppy missed in time to get slapped four times into the ground before Serena quickly ordered Minccino to use it's own tackle to pry them off of one another,Audino took the hit hard and got a bruise on it's head as a parting gift.

"Sludge bomb." Jack furiously ordered Kana who complied quickly firing off sludge like a machine gun at Minccino and Lillipup who dodged the initial attacks but were not quick enough to escape the blast radius of the explosions that followed only Minccino was poisoned though. Cheren adjusted his tight and with a heavy hand yelled at it's Lillipup "Helping hand, now." the pup gave off a bark before rustling its fur and sending a shock wave of blue energy at Minccino. Serena smiled before pointing at Kana who stood proudly with a grin "Thunderbolt." she ordered, Minccino still glowing from the power of helping hand sent out a jolt of powerful yellow electricity that pierced Kana and finally wiped the triumphant smirk from her face.

Hanna shrieked. If Kana was immobilized she was sure she would not be obtaining victory for her first gym battle a thought most unpleasant. A quick slap of the face brought her out of her trance "Audino, pound." Audino rubbed the bruise on her head before charging to punch Minccino but it was too quick and quickly sent out a wave of floating hearts bursting in her direction they seemed to envelop her before she stopped dead in her attack.

"Audino?" Hanna called out to the small creature who began to dance ignoring her call Jack looked over to Hanna with a grim look on his face "She's not going to attack Minccino he used attract on her, shes infatuated." the Minccino mimicked his earlier action and flexed Audino happily clapped with Kana looking down scornfully calling out to Audino "Gas!" she wheezed weakened from the earlier thunderbolt and entering the first stages of paralysis. Audino continued to blissfully ignore commands properly enthralled with Minccino.

Cheren adjusted his tie doing his best to keep on a serious face "Shadow ball." he said plainly pointing at Kana the small puppy barked and from its mouth shot out a ball of black energy quickly at Kana. Jack was frantic in this moment and did the only thing he could think of "Use a big sludge bomb knock it back!" he yelled Kana winced with an eye clothes struggling to open her mouth she wheezed "Gas!." shooting out the largest ball of sludge she could it collided with the Lillipup's shadow ball and exploded on impact showering the field with noxious sludge that hit both Lillipup and Minccino(who was still flexing.) both were properly poisoned this time Minccino who resisted the earlier poisoning was now badly poisoned and it showed he let out a strong cough "Audino!" a shriek of terror escaped Audino's mouth before she dove at Kana doing her best attempt to punch the small ball of gas to no avail.

Kana even in her weakened state kept a strong sense of humor and laughed off these attacks, though she tired of the annoyance and flexed her pupils at Audino who was snoring on the ground a second later.

Hanna felt her heart skip a beat, in her short life not many things that had happened to her had been as embarrassing especially after hearing the snickers of the onlooking pupils of the school at her misfortune Jack even let out a small chuckle, Hanna quickly turned to him with tears welling in her eyes he just smiled and said "Putting her to sleep is a blessing in disguise, we can win now." Hanna really wanted to punch him at this point was she that much of a burden? Why did she decide on becoming a trainer in the first place?

"Ok Kana let's end this,just like we practiced Venoshock!" Jack commanded with gusto in his voice Kana puffed her cheeks before releasing a humongous cloud of green smoke over the arena as a reflex Jack jumped over to Hanna and covered her mouth and nose with his hand he did the same for himself with his jacket Lillipup and Minccino were both hit with the noxious gas the tiny Minccino fell over quickly drooling Lillipup attempted to resist the gas but fell victim all the same and let out a stream of salmon colored vomit before falling to the ground.

"Enough!" called the judge jumping down from the platform Jack grinned "How unprofessional." Kana took this as a sign to hover over to Jack she laughed so hard the cloud of gas around her keeping her alive faded and she then licked Hanna seemingly a celebratory gesture that Hanna took none to kindly but she was too disappointed to fight back and brought out her pokeball "Audino, return." she said pressing against the pokeball returning her sleeping Audino with a beam of pink red light.

Cheren walked over to the both of them with a look that did it's best to hide his anger but he was above all else professional and pulled from his pocket two purple badges shaped like the spine of a book "Congratulations you both have earned the basic badge. Now please leave."

Hanna took the badge with a frown while Jack remained as calm as he had ever been but as Cheren walked back to his injured Lillipup he gave a heavy bow "Thank you for the battle and the opportunity to learn from you." Cheren ignored him entirely and returned his Lillipup to it's pokeball quietly.

The walk to to the Pokemon center was long but as Jack had felt it was still a badge earned regardless of the situation both of them left their Pokemon in the center and headed to a nearby restaurant to get some food.

The restaurant was small and quaint a family run diner that was supposedly famous for it's great steaks whether that was true or not was up to Jack, Hanna ordered a small cesar salad that she played with.

"It happens to the best of em." Jack commented slowly eating his steak Hanna was quickly broken away from her trance and did her best to smile "I know but you have to understand how embarrassing that was for me, I didn't even really win the badge you did. On your own."

"Talk like that is a good sign, you as a trainer should feel the need to improve and get stronger alongside your Pokemon." there was no way this kid was ten everything he said sounded like a chapter title of a trainers self help book and the attitude was ever so slightly beginning to wane on Hanna.

"I guess." she pouted shuffling the tomato in her salad with her fork "Trust me it's fine sure you didn't do so hot but you learned of a weakness evident in your team, Audino has great defenses but is weak to immobilizing moves its a great start." Jack spoke between taking off chunks of his steak.

"The real problem here is that attract isn't a move you can really counter it is only resisted by Pokemon of opposing gender, or un-emotional lucky for you Audino is almost entirely emotive she warmed up to me quickly."

"So what do you do to counter Kana's weaknesses in battle?"

"Kana is a ghost so she is obviously weak to her own kind but psychic and dark can sometimes pose a problem to get around this I focused on using moves that are heavily immobilizing so they can't get their weakening attacks in."

Hanna blinked before smothering her plate in dressing "So what can I do to counter immobilizing moves like attract, I can't just stop her from being nice or having a different set of chromosomes than the opponent."

"I...honestly don't know not many trainers teach male Pokemon attract so it's hard to say...but your best bet is to catch a male Pokemon."

"Why is that?"

"Well if you catch another male Pokemon it will get Audino used to being around males and hopefully less susceptible to attract."

Hanna thought over the idea the entire way back to the center "A new Pokemon." the short conversation gave her a new goal one that she said would need to be fulfilled by the time she had approached her next gym battle.

Once back at the center her and Jack received their now healed Pokemon Kana still basking in the glory of her victory over the Aspertia gym happily flew through the center scaring random trainers who stepped foot in the gym with mean look, Audino could feel the disappointment her trainer felt and hugged her knees upon reunion. The well behaved Audino that happily returned the pokeballs back to the both of them was a downer Hanna was envious of the confident and much larger rabbit-like Pokemon.

The night was long Hanna slept like a baby her first real bed in three days made her miss her blue Gyarados bed spread, but these were passing thoughts as she quietly drifted off to sleep.

The next morning was loud Hanna woke up checking the halls to find Jack but he was nowhere to be found the next thing she noticed was her Audino was not in it's pokeball it had decided to try to sing along with a fluttering furry blue pokemon with a nose shaped vaguely like a heart the nurse of the center waved her down as she made it down stairs "Your friend left you something." Joy pulled out a small package that Hanna took with a curious look shaking it lightly a few times she opened it to see an envelope and a small CD case with '#49' written on it.

She opened the envelope to read a letter Jack had written in messy handwriting she made due and read it anyways.

_I'm sorry for leaving you like this sunshine, but you slept in a little bit too late and I really want to challenge the next gym as soon as possible._

_Keep your head up the forest outside of floccesy are brimming with pokemon for you to catch_

_I left you a parting gift as well I hope it serves you well._

_Love Jack and Kana._

Nurse Joy leaned over curiously and happily clapped "Your boyfriend must be really nice."

Hanna nodded with a soft smile "Yeah, he is."


	4. Round 4:Nerves of steel

**Pokemon Next**

****Round 4:Nerves of steel

Hanna showered as quickly as possible the line in the center was rather long apparently a lot of people had just become trainers but her shower was as quick as she could possibly have made it while still removing the grime and dirt inflicted by the wilderness. Hanna had been given a technical machine or TM by Jack it was his parting gift to her and she wasn't going to waste it. Nurse Joy was ecstatic and saw the situation as romantic after watching Audino try to eat the small pink disc and Hanna placing it on her head like a talisman she pulled out an old TM case from one of the storage closets in the center Hanna enthusiastically put the disc inside of the machine it was long and thick with a glass lens at it's front with a place for discs on its side.

The machine made a few beeps before the clear lens at the front of it turned red. The light attracted Audino to it she was frozen in a daze being pulled in by the flashing machine it blinked a few times then clicked off Audino was quickly snapped back to reality she looked up at Hanna inquisitively with a finger to her chin.

"Trainer." Audino's lips did not move but Hanna could clearly hear it speaking to her "So...this is psychic, kind of creepy." Audino bounced happily "We can talk to each other now!" Hanna looked down at her with a worried look for some reason her being able to communicate didn't seem so great.

Setting off out of the center with a newly acquired tm case Hanna and Audino headed back to the wild it took another three days to get back to her hometown passing through the area and it's familiar sights Hanna saw no reason to stop by her own home she had made little progress thus far and decided not to stay. Along the way things had become much easier on the battlefront psychic gave Audino a huge advantage over the normal types in the area, but at the same time this was bad news Hanna wanted a strong addition to the team but the Pokemon in the area were pushovers that or Audino was just drunk on power and becoming a bully. The notion was strong in her head until a few miles out of Flocessy Hanna dropped her backpack to the ground and pulled out a sandwich she ripped in half and gave to Audino who happily fed most of her portion to a wandering Sewaddle that was apparently hungry.

Hanna looked at her Audino happily giving up most of her lunch and wiping a crumb off her face turned to ask "Do you enjoy fighting?"

Audino looked back at Hanna curiously turning her head to the side "I guess, you do don't you?"

"What makes you say that?"

"Trainer gets really excited when I win he even jumped up and down a few times."

"I'm a girl for starters and second of all you're supposed to be happy after accomplishing something like winning a battle."

"Trainer is female? Female humans are usually less feisty and more soft spoken."

"Are you serious?! How am I not feminine Jack thought I was feminine I bet he even thinks im cute and gave me that TM because he started to like me!" Hanna began to yell frantically raising her hand in the air Audino smiled softly at her "I'm sure he did trainer is quite persuasive."

"Anyways...do you like just being called Audino?"

"It suits me just fine trainer."

Hanna had reached a ticking point and was now officially annoyed she had called her trainer one time too many it was quickly getting on her nerves "Ok. Let's make a deal, first stop calling me trainer my name is Hanna and you aren't just Audino anymore you can be let's see..." Hanna began to think of the characteristics that made the creature distinct she was kind and understanding but so were most Audino, looked like ice cream but so did most Audino but that's when Hanna remembered once upon a time being injured climbing a tree visiting her grandparents the same year she had encountered Gyarado's she was put in the hospital and taken care of by a kind nurse who's name was not easy to forget Dinah.

Snapping her fingers at her own mental breakthrough she looked down at Audino and said triumphantly "Dinah. You call me Hanna, not trainer and I call you Dinah."

The small Audino smiled again "Sure Dinah I like that. The woman who watched me hatch out of my egg had a similar name."

"You know I haven't asked yet but how old are you exactly?"

Dinah tried to count using her stubby fingers "Two maybe three years old I do not know I am not good with numbers. I had lived simply for many moons with my friends Torkoal and Spinda but was taken away and met you not long after."

"Have you...missed them."

Dinah raised her hands in flustered protest "Oh no, no I have been very happy with you but...sometimes."

Hanna smiled and did her best to pick up Dinah for a hug "Ok I'll take you to see them on our journey I promise.

After the short moment of calm Hanna and Dinah set out into the thicket of the forest again to look for a new teammate.

Dinah was decidedly great but she was prepackaged to be that way, as great as she would ever be it would always be autonomous with Hanna pushing her along the way, as understanding as she was Hanna was still ten and still wanted glory she needed something smaller less intelligent more dependent on her.

Pidove was the most common thing in the area but they were too dumb for Hanna's liking Purrloin were bad news all around they even held each other in bad regard fighting for food mates and resting spots was stock that and the incident earlier were enough to convince her they were unfavorable.

"Dinah how good is your sense of smell?"

"Not very good, sorry."

This short exchange was the extent of their next break. The Pidove were becoming irate the angrier they got the smarter they flocked four at a time sometimes more but their plans were more complicated with each onslaught before long they knew to attack Hanna in Dinah's stead but psychic had proved a move too powerful for them to counter soon the forest grew quiet it felt that the both of them had beaten everything in the immediate area.

Hanna felt for a short while that she would be making the journey to Virbank with just Dinah by her side but then in the corner of her eye, a patch of rustling glass and a crunch later two ears raised peeking up through the thicket it walked out a moment later blood smeared across it's nose red eyes studious calm and powerful, this was everything Hanna needed.

"Get down." Hanna whispered with a motion of her hands Dinah was quick to comply they both watched the creature move over to the river and take a sip of water, it was small very small but it had toned muscles a quick glance would lead one to the conclusion they were shaped by the battles the cuts and bruises all over it's body produced.

Hanna was militant she knew she had to be smart about this but already it's ears were twitching behind it as it took casual sips of the water the river offered and surveyed the landscape in front of it she needed to be smart but fast, fast but no hasty and hasty but not dumb a paradox unimaginable for her.

The only true option was to get a good hit on it that would slow it down long enough for it to be caught she motioned for Dinah to come in closer and she did "Ok so the plan is use psychic on it's leg so it can't get away, but you're going to have to be as fast as possible I know you're new at using it but just be quick and try to be accurate." Dinah gave a silent nod and without moving her lips thought back to Hanna "Ok trainer Hanna."

Dinah widened her eyes and concentrated her mental powers she watched the blue creature until she could memorize it's routine sipping water then taking a breath to look ahead, she did and in a split second moved the ground itself behind the creature and struck directly at it's leg knocking it to the ground with a growl.

"Great, now use pound." Dinah was quick to reply and with it's tiny fists balled charged at the creature but it took a deep breath it's body glowing bright red it caught Dinah's fist and countered with a fist of it's own much quicker and angrier than her own she was punched only a few inches away from Hanna's leg

The creature turned to run but it dropped quickly to rub its aching leg Dinah however was quick to recover and ready to take orders "Double slap as many times as you can!" the beating the small creature received was brutal Dinah was relentless with her fists and the creature could not counter it fainted under the intense pain.

"Yes, yes!" Hanna cheered shuffling through her backpack to grab a pokeball once she found it she released it just as quickly the creature was hit by the ball but it bounced off and landed safely next to Dinah's leg puzzled she picked up the small object and turned to Hanna "What happened?"

Hanna ran over to the fainted creature realizing what had just happened she put a hand over her mouth "Damn!" she cursed aloud "What do I do now?" chewing her thumbs was a habit she had all but long forgotten but rarely in moments like this it resurfaced the only reason a pokeball would ever bounce like her's did was either it was defective or it belonged to someone else, and Hanna had enough faith in her parents to warrant her believing they would buy her new pokeballs.

Hanna picked up the small creature and cradled it in her arms she figured the Virbank Pokemon center was closer than running back to Floccesy so she told herself she would sprint as quickly as she could and turn the two day trek into an hour long sprint. Route twenty wasn't humongous by any shot of distance but a run that far would be quite costly on her knees and more importantly Dinah's she struggled to grab the pokeball on her waist while still holding on to the small blue creature but just as she was ready to return Dinah in the distance she saw trees falling to the ground at a rapid rate.

"Damn what now?"

The path of falling trees or whatever was causing it at least was headed straight for her, the closer they approached the more agitated Dinah became for the first time since they had met her teeth were barred and her ears perked to unusually high height the small creature in her arms must have felt whatever Dinah had been feeling because it worriedly whimpered fluttering it's arms about "I'm sorry little guy but your hurt."

The next bad omen was a school of stampeding Purrloin that surfaced from the path of destroyed trees they scampered about furiously Hanna could just barely make out they weren't moving as fast as was common for their species though.

Out of the destroyed thicket it stood powerful and tall made of steel and rusted with smudges of blood narrow eyes, it took one look at Hanna and turned to call to the forest behind it "Bi!" its wail was deep and guttural, it returned full attention to Hanna but did not move that was until from the path of chopped trees stumbling with no amount of confidence appeared a small boy a small frown glued to his face.

"You!" he pointed to Hanna "What did you do to my Riolu?"

Hanna sat the weak creature to the ground with a drop of sweat forming on her forehead "Sorry I didn't know it was yours I just saw it by the river."

The boy gave a grin "It is no problem, but of course it is mine you can see the battle scars on it's body are obviously from a Pokemon not native to the region."

Hanna looked at the small blue creature barely able to stand without her arms supporting it, eyes barely open and covered in scars "You did this to it?"

"Yeah...it may look bad but that little Riolu is incredibly powerful it is the only Pokemon on this route that didn't die from an attack from my Bisharp."

Hanna suddenly realized the scope of the situation and defensively grabbed Riolu returning it to her arms.

"What are you doing that is _my _Riolu."

"Look I don't care who's it is I can't give you back this Pokemon until it's seen a doctor." this was the best excuse Hanna could manage without coming off as openly antagonistic. This kid could not touch Riolu ever again he was definitely not to be trusted with the care of anything living.

This was a failed attempt.

"Give me back my Riolu or else...or else i'll kill you!" the boy yelled and on command his Bisharp readied it's metallic fist for battle Dinah was just as quick to take the defensive though. The obvious difference in level scared Hanna but that was what gave her the insensitive to attack first since Dinah had learned psychic though the small Audino would not acknowledge it Hanna could feel something every now and then poking her psyche and she knew it was Dinah doing her best to probe without the use of mind reader, when this happened she did her best to wipe thoughts of Jack or her jealousy towards Lora from her mind, but this time it came in handy and she did what could only be described as flexing her mind to send a flag in Dinah's direction it was made apparent that she felt Hanna when she flexed her tail in her direction.

"Use psychic to throw that Pokemon as far away as possible. After that we run, nothing else got it?"

Dinah flexed her tail twice, communication was limited but this was as much of a yes as the girl could expect.

Bisharp stared Dinah down with it's arm pointed in her direction and in an instant for an instant it flinched and Dinah knew it was the time to attack though invisible to both Hanna and the male trainer an intense exchange of mental energy had been released and Bisharp could feel it's legs losing their balance on the ground and waded off the attack with a wave of it's arm it retaliated "Night slash." the male trainer commanded bombastically as the Bisharp released a slicing wave of black energy from it's left hand Dinah jumped infront of Hanna and shielded her but for all the trouble the both of them were thrown hard enough by the attack to be sent across the small river behind them.

Hanna hit the other side with a thump and upon standing and seeing the trees around her with dimly lit flames attached to the trees her situation's dire urgency became quite apparent. Bisharp charged furiously at the both of them hopping across the river separating them Dinah was still alert and used her psychic powers to launch a section of the ground at Bisharp but it didn't matter to it with a glowing hand it smashed the rock into debris that rained over them with a move that even to Hanna was obviously brick break, a large sectioned bruised Dinah before it bounced to the ground next to her.

The trainer looked at her with a smug smirk and folded his hands "You idiot psychic moves don't work on dark types. What are you new."

"Kind of." Hanna grunted struggling to sit up Riolu still in her arms.

A flock of Pidove swarmed from the trees all around and collectively attacked Bisharp who gave a lazy swing of his arm to attempt to fend them off "Don't play with them Daz use nightslash." the Bisharp closed its eyes and sighed shooting off another beam of charged black energy flying at the birds, it hit without fail and bloody feathers flew from their bodies and floated to the ground Hanna was suddenly very sick.

Bisharp hopped across the river with ease and pointed it's bladed arm at Dinah Hanna was all out of cards and could not even think of a proper response instead Riolu jumped from her arms and shot a giant blue wave of circular energy from it's hands that hit Bisharp dead center in it's chest it refused to be knocked back instead flinching in place. Bisharp looked down at Riolu with a sigh before giving it a quick chop on the head and knocking it out cold.

Dinah who had finally recuperated walked over to Hanna who had not noticed a small cut leaking blood on her shoulder.

Bisharp grabbed Riolu and slung it over it's shoulder and returning to it's trainer quietly.

"Good job Daz." the male trainer said returning Riolu to it's pokeball with a smirk. Hanna's vision was fading fast but even with her eyes clothes she still held conciousness to hear the boy walk off "My name is Roger by the way, you'll be hearing my name all over soon i'm going to beat every gym in record time." this wasn't Hanna's first loss or failure but for the first time her loss didn't just make her angry this one hurt.


	5. Round 5:Minor setback

**Pokemon Next**

Round 5:Minor setback

After the short skirmish against Bisharp Dinah was scraped by a few falling rocks and the nightslash that Bisharp shot at her but she as was common for her species was sturdy and quick to regenerate her wounds pained her for but a short moment after the battle but Hanna was small and weak; a human in every sense of the word and was hurt.

Dinah was quick to take the initiative to treat Hanna's wounds she ripped a section of her jacket off and used it to wrap the wound applied to her shoulder and used her natural healing abilities to cure the burn on her leg.

Though the initiative taken by Audino to heal others was instinctive the knowledge to do so was not though Dinah did her best to remember the words of one of the kind elder Pokemon on the breeding ranch a giant Snorlax who slept twenty-two hours a day but would always pop up for a quick nugget of wisdom in between chewing his food.

"Human's may rule over us but they are surely weaker, they do not possess the abilities we do when it comes to shrugging off injuries their arteries clog and their bodies tire while ours are may still work like well oiled machines, if you ever encounter a situation where in your future trainers require your assistance warm water to kill infections and herbs that are green and arc shaped can be boiled to remedy bruises."

Remembering his words was necessary for Dinah to help Hanna in her time of need and just as he said she was to seek out arc shaped leaves a small Patrat was friendly enough to lead her to a tree that grew them in bunches after quickly shaking the trees she gathered the falling leaves boiled them over a small fire she had made. Over the hours the gangs of Pidove not killed by Bisharp gathered to watch and groups of Purrloin gathered just as frequently to try to steal from the unconscious Hanna though Dinah was quick to fend them off.

Hanna had slept the majority of that day and a little bit of the next her xtransceiver told her it was nine-fifteen a.m when she awoke with her shoulder bandaged and her leg still healing she noticed Dinah snuggled up against her breathing lightly.

Quietly slipping away from Dinah who had gripped her hand during their nap Hanna walked through the forest gathering fruit from what was left of the trees in the forest, Bisharp had done a major number on the trees and the Pokemon a lot of them had died and those that weren't could barely stand, the entire sight was sick.

"Dinah!" Hanna shook the sleeping Audino waking her up her eyes fluttered and opened wide as soon as she realized it was Hanna shaking her awake "Trainer Hanna! You are alive."

Hanna ignored Dinah's concern becoming increasingly sickened by the dying forest "C'mon we're leaving."

"Now?"

"Right now."

Hanna made her words sound as forceful as she could manage in her weakened state and grabbed her things quickly. The path that she followed showed Bisharp's destruction was everywhere the trees were marked in the blood of Pokemon and the paths were filled with dead Pokemon themselves, as far as she went along the road his mark was distinctive and everywhere.

The Pokemon that were alive were different than before things that had taken refuge in the deepest areas of the forest or had slept doing the day were roaming about one of them was small blue and cream colored hopping about near the river.

And Hanna remembered the whole reason for staying in the forest for so long was to catch a new Pokemon and strengthen her team and the creatures bright blue colored face gave the impression it was a water type and type coverage was always good.

Dinah had eaten a small snack so she was as prepared as the duo could be in the middle of the forest with no long term food supply or bed to sleep in comfortably the duo was ready to strike but the creature unlike Riolu was quick to spot them, surprise was not an issue of great importance the creature was small enough to be handled without much worry.

To start off with a less taxing move was Hanna's strategy this time round Dinah began with pound but missed the creature who hopped high into the air and shot a giant ball of water that knocked Dinah to the ground.

The small creature having this much strength had not been accounted for conservation stopped being an option at that moment, Psychic yelled Hanna it didn't take much for Dinah to get a good shot at the small water based Pokemon the added momentum of being in the air aided the power of the move as was assumed.

Whatever this small creature was it was tough, it had not whined cried or called it's name since the battle began the creature kept the same puzzling face that displayed a mix of smug and confused on even after an onslaught of psychic attacks.

Hanna was quickly running out of ideas and growing more frustrated along the way until Dinah turned to her "Trainer Hanna. This Pokemon wants to be caught."

"How do you know?"

"For just a second, when I used psychic I saw a flash of something in his mind, of a big slimy creature with red eyes and it was standing behind you taking commands."

"So it wants to evolve?"

The small creature gave a cool smirk as Hanna looked at it she nodded and threw her pokeball at it the ball jiggled for a bit two clicks and then a ding showed that Dinah was very right.

Hanna had officially caught her first Pokemon but seeing as how it wanted to be caught in the first place made the victory seem a bit hollow, but it was still caught and it was still hers and as was customary she had to name this energetic bouncing creature. A good look at the Pokemon showed it gave no defining characteristic besides its incredibly aggravating grin and its tail so a name would have to be given to it on a whim.

"Do you have any ideas Dinah?"

"Marcus?"

"Marcus? Why Marcus?"

"Their was a boy named Marcus that lived on the ranch where I was born."

"Marcus huh...something about that doesn't fit for this guy he's smug and confident almost like a movie star." Hanna had not seen many movies in her life guess you could say they weren't her thing, she watched Pokemon sunday which gave her bits and pieces of info she felt she would need someday but any movie that was longer than two hours wasn't her thing, but her father had a sizable collection of films and he had a definite favorite actor and he gave the same cocky smile and moved with the same confidence as the small blue creature.

"Marlon. His name will be Marlon."

The creature blinked before hopping at Hanna and latching onto her shoulder she gave a confused look and took steps back the gesture was foreign to her but the closest thing it resembled was a hug.

The next few days of training were extensive, or as extensive as Hanna could manage luckily Marlon was an eager and excitable creature he took to battle more naturally than Dinah and through the small battles that occurred, the route was still in bad shape and so Hanna took to training on the outskirts of Virbank.

After finally entering the city Hanna was saddened by the news of the gym being closed after an incident with a trainer the details were not known to her but the quick assumption was that it had to have been grim because no one in town had seen the leader Roxie in days.

This time without a gym leader was somewhat welcomed by Hanna she had trained as hard as she could but new was still new, she had never truly won a battle against an actual trainer and her first gym match she was largely unaccounted for.

Without a gym leader the trainers of the city had nothing but time and so the Pokemon center was quick to become full at the end of her days after watching a movie or training she took to the outskirts to sleep the center was packed and it didn't look like the trend would be ending anytime soon their were still no signs of Roxie anywhere.

At the center Hanna learned a few things Marlon's species was known as Tympole and it's evolved form were known for being nasty pieces of work but this information was largely dismissed.

One morning after wandering into the city hair barely combed Hanna saw someone she really didn't want to see; Lora, again but their she was in all her glory, though noticeably not her usual glory her jumping ecstatic demeanor was replaced by one of a jumpy detective. What had happened to Roxie was a mystery of great importance one that she felt needed to be solved quickly.

Hanna did her best to avoid her, but the city was only so large and the only way out was via boat. Them meeting was inevitable. And of course very unpleasant.

"Hanna have you heard no one can get a gym battle."

"News to me, so I guess you haven't gotten a battle either then?"

Lora shook her head furiously showing off her badge case which clearly contained two badges, Hanna did her best to ignore it "I got my badges already, but still it's not fair that the other trainers don't get matches, it's just not fair!" she protested.

"Any leads detective?"

"None yet but i'm not weak enough to just give up."

She was very honest after dragging Hanna into the whole affair she was relentless in her search for clues of some sort she looked in the theaters in any restaurant that would let her enter and interviewed as many trainers as she could find, but to no avail.

This was all the usual for Lora she was as headstrong as they come and so stubborn that it was legendary in Floccesy their were no bullies simply because of the fact that Lora existed for the sole purpose of fighting against such people like a crusader of justice she would rise to any occasion, the whole thing made Hanna sick.

But Lora was not just good natured in her fight for justice she was ruthless a memorable story occurred during a routine game of tag one of the larger children in the city had decided it would be a good idea to cut off another girls hair for some reason or the other Hanna always heard it was because of a spat that occurred over a bike Lora watched the entire thing with no expression she knew the kid was twice as big as her and direct confrontation was not an option so she waited. Four hours had passed before she made her move the boy decided to get a snack from the pokemart Hanna's parents owned and on his way out with a snack, Lora cornered him kicked him in the gut and put a shaving knife to his head and clean cut off all his hair without hesitation. She was six.

Hanna shuttered remembering that faithful encounter she watched from her bedroom window with both amazement and fear it was the single reason she had never told Lora off to her face before.

The adventure came to an end when the restless trainers of the city took to the complex in order to stage an unofficial tournament in order to pass the time. The second Lora heard of a tournament her sense of justice was all but miraculously lost she eagerly bolted to the complex leaving Hanna behind to enter.

"She really never changes, ever.


	6. Round 6:Vs sandstorm

A/N:Huzzah a curious review I was waiting on one of those. To answer the awkwardly worded questions, I believe they were? Presented to me, the simple reply is that Hanna is a little experienced at this point and new to things so she simply attacked because it was to her an easy way to get a new ally.

Reviews are appreciated and I hope if you are reading this you'll leave a review. As always enjoy the chapter.

**Pokemon Next**

Round 6: vs sandstorm 

"So how is it you get your Pokemon to behave so well?" Hanna inquired Lora who sat across from her at a table in the center.

Lora who was stuffing her face with a bowl of warm oatmeal she had predictably doused in enough cinnamon to kill the average human. After swallowing a mouthful of oatmeal she looked over to her right and her recently evolved Dewott was in a lotus meditative position with Dinah carefully trying to mimic him the best she could though her stubby legs ruined her posture.

"I don't really know he was always like that thankfully."

Hanna was unusually perturbed by the behavior Lora gave off and with a hand cupping her chin she peered over at her two Pokemon with a look that held dis shelved hope.

"Here you are." Nurse Joy said dropping off a bowl of steaming hot oatmeal in front of Hanna before moving on to the next table.

"So how did you get your Oshawott to evolve?"

"What do you mean how?"

Hanna blinked before lightly tapping her spoon against the table, another stupid reaction and it was going in her eye "Like what did you do to get it to evolve is their a trick?"

Lora looked confused but she sat down her spoon and answered as honestly as she could "Pokemon evolve in different ways most through pure experience Oshawott evolved in the middle of our battle against Roxie, he just started to glow and turned into Dewott I can't say I don't like it he's much more diligent and cool now."

Hanna had wished since her journey began that she could muster such kind words for either Dinah or Marlon but one was only just recently caught and the other was obedient but admittedly not quite suited for battle, watching her in the moment stumbling around trying to mimic Dewott was a perfect example, her feet were in the right place to assume the pose but her bod was not poised for it she looked unnatural and this bothered Hanna.

"Alright Hanna let's give the competition our best." assured Lora before calling to her Dewott that gave a no nonsense but respectable nod to Dinah who tried her best to bow back at him but looked more like she was squatting uncomfortably.

Damn she's off to train right now Hanna thought to herself she looked at Dinah with a curious look before noticing the large Audino behind the main counter of the center and realized that all along she had never asked the most important and accessible person of all for training tips.

"Nurse Joy? Called Hanna the nurse who had just finished giving out oatmeal to the patrons of the center turned to Hanna with a relaxed smile and approached her table "Yes?"

"How is it that all nurse joy have such strong and reliable Audino?"

Nurse Joy blushed and put a bashful hand to her cheek "Audino are wonderful and helpful creatures it's in their instinct to be that way."

Hanna blinked visibly upset "But what about for battles?"

"Audino aren't really ideal for battles, but if you fight with one the greatest thing working in their advantage is the high stamina they all have. Audino can survive a direct lightning strike in the middle of a thunderstorm."

"Is...is that true?"

Nurse Joy gave a reassuring thumbs up "Without a doubt."

Hanna grumbled under her breath noticing the silver tongued manner in which Nurse joy spoke to her "What about your Audino nurse Joy?"

"Hm, me and my Audino have been together since nursing school she doesn't battle much being a nursing Pokemon and all. But I suppose she could learn Audino can learn a wide variety of moves to counter virtually anything."

With an inquisitive finger to her chin Hanna began to ponder more ways to take advantage of Dinah's natural talents but was unable to hatch any ideas. Looking at the head Audino of the clinic despite looking the same their was something undeniably different about Dinah(excluding the nice hat of course.) turning back to the nurse she asked "You have any extra Tm's lying around?"

After rummaging through a large box at the back of the center Hanna was successful in finding a TM she found useful and took Dinah to the outskirts of the city to test it's effectiveness on a few bottles of cola she had given to Marlon earlier.

She set up four bottles along a fence post separating the city from the forest and directed Dinah towards them.

"Alright let's give this a try. Thunderbolt on the bottles."

Dinah nodded and with the rustling of her fur discharged three beams of yellow electricity all of which missed the bottles set placed on the fence. Dinah lowered her head in embarrassment before whining telepathically "Trainer Hanna, I am so sorry."

Hanna smacked a palm to her forehead before sighing and patting Dinah on the head "No problem it was your first try give it a second shot." and so she gave it another four tries successfully shocking a nearby Purrloin a tree and Hanna but still no bottles Dinah cried aloud for the first time in days "Audino." her head lowered Hanna half paralyzed began to pat her again.

Marlon happily jumped around as he watched Dinah attempt to hit the bottles to no avail he eventually hopped on to Hanna's shoulder for what he thought would be a safer seat being a water type and all.

"Trainer Hanna my head hurts." whimpered Dinah holding a paw to her forehead.

Hanna sighed in remarkably low spirits returning Dinah to her pokeball and spoke to it "I guess i'll just use Marlon and hope for the best." she walked all the way back to the center with her head held down in the trees above her a large white bird with blue crotch feathers keenly watched her walk back.

At the center Hanna had given Dinah's pokeball to the resident Audino as Nurse Joy was enjoying her smoke break. She sat down and looked at Marlon hop aggressively in front of her and began to count aloud the moves she had seen him use "Ok so he shot a circle of water at Dinah...so water gun he obviously knows how to bounce and it tried to scream earlier. I don't know what that is."

Other trainers in the center had gathered around their Pokemon in order to coordinate strategies for the upcoming battles the sight of the accomplished trainers gave Hanna quite the complex realizing she could not successfully do this but the routine of training she saw also distinctly reminded her of Jack, she had to wonder where he was at the moment the gym had been closed for at least a week and was in that shape for a day at most even before she arrived. Was he really that good? Did he beat Roxie that quickly or had he simply headed in another direction on his journey, thoughts that had to be put off for later as a loud voice rang over the speaker of the center "Attention all trainers participating in the rookie cup, please make your way to the virbank complex to begin sign up's."

A hop skip and a jump away from the center was the virbank complex a large construction zone full of large metallic towers at the center of the grassy complex a small arena had been made with steal bleachers on either side of the center field.

A small table with three lines was made for sign ups each trainer had to give their trainer card and register the Pokemon they would be using throughout the tournament, with Dinah suffering headaches Marlon was her only option and so Hanna quickly entered without hesitation.

Hanna looked at the large screen showing all of the competitors and saw her opponent had been selected randomly it was a boy who wore an orange headband with a pokeball marking at its center, he looked to be a few years older than her but with his lazy gaze in his picture she figured an easy win.

The first round of the mock tournament was a quick win a young girl and her meditte quickly defeated a boy and his Maractus it looked to be a close call once Maractus used it's needle arm but Meditite had the advantage of mind reader and used it to predict and counter each of the small cactus Pokemon's attacks and ended the match with a precise force palm.

And now in the second match Lora stood proudly at the edge of the field staring down her competition a girl that looked about her age with red hair tied into two pigtails the electronic screen to the right of the field said in large neon letters the name of both trainers.

Lora waved at her opponent with a cheerful smile "Good luck." the girl gave no reaction and narrowed her eyes before releasing her pokeball "Go Snivy!" a beam of light shot from the ball and their stood Snivy with a twig dangling from it's mouth.

Lora paid the girls rudeness no mind and just as happy as before threw her pokeball to the center of the field "Let's show them what you got Dewott." Dewott jumped from his ball with a look of unrivaled determination it stared at it's opponent a slight intimidation struck the small Snivy but it did not show looking at it.

"Dewott let's open up with razor shell." the blue otter complied and removed the two shining scalchop's from it's side dashing at the tiny lizard.

"Don't let that wimp bully you, Snivy." barked the girl "Use leaf tornado to counter."

Snivy was quick to attack and a giant gust of green wind propelled it toward Dewott. Their was a clashing of the two that knocked both of them backward Dewott landed on it's head with it's two shells falling seconds after it, Snivy landed on it's feet but a small cut was branded onto it's cheek for the trouble.

"Heh not so cheerful now am I right?"

Dewott was quick to it's feet and without order had already began running in Snivy's direction "Water gun!" beckoned Lora pointing at Snivy's feet "Dodge it!" retorted the enemy trainer.

Snivy was obviously faster than Dewott but the confidence that glimmered in it's eyes was naturally intimidating and the gust of water from the otter shot Snivy off of it's feet into the air Lora gave a confident smirk that pierced the enemy trainer she had no idea what to do and flailed wildy "Razor shell!" Dewott brandished the scalchops as it jumped in the air to chase Snivy the lizard was not accustomed to being in the air, his face showed his fear and Dewott looked down as determined as ever and sliced one shell across Snivy's chest and another against it's face, his screams were telling enough but the victory gong was not rung until it fell to the ground face first unconcious.

"Dew. Dewott." the small otter returned its scalchops to it's sides before bowing to the defeated Pokemon.

"Good job Dewott." Lora cheered humbly before returning the astute otter to it's pokeball Hanna noticed a slight smirk forming at the corners of his mouth as he returned into the beam of light that lead to his pokeball.

Lora's opponent frowned and returned her Snivy back to it's pokeball "I'm sorry Snivy we'll try again next time.

Hanna was as surprised as anyone else in the crowd her face was frozen in a look of total shock meanwhile Marlon happily hopped on her head cheering on Dewott all she could think was that she hoped Lora lost her next round, not because of her usual jealousy but because she truly feared Dewott and Lora as a duo.

But she shook her head and returned to reality because her fight was next.

Before approaching the arena she took a look to notice how many of the construction workers from around the city had gathered to watch her battle and was quite shy, her opponent stood across from the field looking as sleepy as he did on his picture.

The referee for the match was a young man with a whistle and a stop watch the focused look he had in his eyes was enough to display how professional he was about something as simple as a mock tournament.

Hanna took deep breaths before reaching for Marlon's pokeball on her belt, it was cold and made her feel nervous she gripped the ball with one last breath before tossing it "Marlon show them what you got!" she growled tossing the ball, the small tadpole with it's hard pressed smirk got a small cheer from the crowd.

The boy on the other end of the field whistled at Hanna "How about if I win this you and me get to go on a date?"

Hanna took one good look at the boy besides his sleepy look his skin was greasy and covered with pimples his shirt was wrinkled and sloppy, the pokeball he was holding onto was covered in dirt and to top it all off he was ten pounds heavier than she would have preferred, she couldn't say that out loud though.

"How's that work? For all I know you could just use a type Marlon is weak to now that you know he's water."

Coolheaded he chuckled "That's why im making the bet. Go Dusty!" the boy threw his pokeball to center field in much the same way as Hanna, out of the ray of light waddled a mole with large claws a coat of black dirty fur with blue streaks throughout.

Hanna winced "Is he a rock type?"

The boy smirked holding onto his headband "She's a girl and shes a darn proud ground type. Now dig dusty!"

"Drill!" crooned the mole making use of it's large claws it shoveled into the ground hastily Hanna off guard completely shrieked "Marlon, shoot her." the tiny Tympole shot out a blast of circular high pressured water in an instant but alas he was still late and Dusty had escaped into the rocky ground below.

Marlon and his species in general were active and fast but still small Hanna was smart enough to recognize the disadvantage of raw strength.

Hanna's opponent was swift in his commands "Dusty grab that runt and use metal claw." the ground below Marlon shook he looked back to Hanna with a worried look. The fear he felt was well warranted as Dusty rushed from a patch of dirt beneath Marlon and grabbed him with her large claw the other glowing wildly he fearfully struggled to escape but his tail was painfully pinched he responded the only way he knew how to he screamed "Tym, tympole!" Dusty was shaken by the high pitched scream and reluctantly let go shaking her head wildly as she did "Drill..."

Hanna suddenly felt very fortunate and with a snap of her fingers shouted with authority "Marlon use water gun." as usual of the small tadpole he grinned a grin so devilish it was hard to believe he was not an imp of satan himself and shot a blast of high pressure water at Dusty so fast that by the time it hit her senses had been dulled to a ringing that pervaded her ears.

"Actually I think i'll accept that wager just know now that if you lose your buying me a victory dinner, which me and my Pokemon will eat. _Alone_" Hanna jeered with a notoriously cruel smile.

The opponent trainer was biting his lip anxiously looking over at Hanna who's smirk matched her Pokemon "Supersonic then water pulse huh? Nice combo there but it's my time to shine." the compliment was lackluster and Hanna's smirk grew even wider listening to the boy's frustration "Time for the finisher. Marlon use water gun again." howled the girl Marlon barred his teeth and took in a deep breath filling his tiny cheeks before releasing a humongous blast of circular water at the mole.

"Dusty, use dig the sandstorm!" shot back the opponent trainer with a sense of authority.

Dusty shook her head out of confusion and jumped into the ground like it was a swimming pool avoiding the blast of water with ease, it instead hit Hanna square in the forehead and knocked her three feet backward onto the ground with a thump and a bruise.

Marlon hopped over in her direction his smirk faded and replaced with a look of tedious anxiety he squawked at the girl "Tym, tympole?" Hanna could just barely register concern in his voice and leaned forward to give him a thumbs up with her other hand over her newly acquired bruise on her forehead, his brows lowered and he breathed a sigh "Pole."

Behind this touching moment however a slew of sand had polluted the air in a billow of rustling sand that eventually reached over to Hanna and Marlon who did their best to shield their eyes from the piling sand soon it spread outside of the field and into the nearby bleachers where Lora sat, she cried dry tears annoyed by the picking sand she did her best to cover her eyes when suddenly a loud bursting noise erupted from her right hip, Dewott was released on his own and gallantly offered his right scalchop to her kneeling to the ground, Lora gave a warm smile and took the small shell with a giggle shielding the right side of her face with it "Just like a perfect gentleman." she complimented softly, the small otter did not reveal to her his large smile as he bowed, though he was quick to drop the act as soon as Lora rubbed behind his ears. Lora looked down at Marlon on the battlefield who was enduring the worst of the storm, the rustling sand stuck to his wet skin and nearly drowned him, Lora frowned twirling the small scalchop in her hand like a fan "Come on Hanna, I know you have it in you."

On the battlefield Hanna's opponent began to cackle like a crazed man "Aw man I bet you thought you were real smart back there., upping the wager and all. I'm nice so don't worry I'll treat you to a meal and everything but I'm going to expect a kiss afterward."

Mental images swam through the girls mind, sickening images that she never wanted to see come to fruition, she sat up as determined as ever and looked down at Marlon after a deep breath regained her proper senses "Marlon use bounce to gain momentum and then ride the eye of the storm!" she shouted into the whirling sandstorm, her voice was just faint enough to reach Marlon's small ears he gritted his teeth and propelled himself out of the sand with his tail and continued to bounce until the heavy winds of the storm carried him into its epicenter.

"Now use water gun as many times as you can all over the field!" she commanded and Marlon followed firing off as many rings of circular water as he could like a high pressured gun soon the field was covered in thick mud and the rather large lumps of it clearly showed the path Dust was moving along.

"Dusty, up the pressure of the storm and then use metal claw."

She was not visible but quite audible Dusty did as told and the storm raged on so hard it began to shake the bleachers and the field was nearly invisible Marlon cried out desperately looking for Hanna but the cold echoes of Dusty's sharp voice was all he could hear "Drill,drill,drill..." her voice was getting louder and closer still "Drill..." the storm became an inanimate fog before long Marlon could not even see in front of himself until the storm collapsed around him and a set of tiny black irises sparkled infront of him and it was lights out.

Hanna could see just barely in the thick of the sand a blue blur being struck down and flying to the ground like a torpedo and whistling like one too before splashing into the sea of mud with a thud that rippled and splashed onto her. Frantically running through the thick mud as fast as her shoes would allow she began to dig with her hands until she found him small coughing and eyes twinkling he looked at her before whispering in a tone that was just barely noticeable regret "Tympole..." she gave a weak smile before bringing him to her chest and then returning him to his pokeball "I'm so sorry. You did great out there."

Her opponent's smirk disappeared with the storm his companion made and he gave Dusty a warm smile before bringing out her pokeball and returning her to it he cheered quietly as she fell into the beam of light "That was amazing keep up the good work." he said to the pokeball. Looking over he could see Hanna sulking quietly and approached her slowly, sidestepping the mud slewed across the field "Look you were pretty good, but you shouldn't have gotten cocky and let me use sandstorm. Dusty has an ability that increases her speed in sandstorms."

Hanna did not look at the boy and instead stared at the small pokeball in her hands "How was I supposed to know that?" she questioned with a frown.

The boy scratched his head "I guess you weren't but you should have taken the safe bet and just used water moves from the start, also I don't think your Tympole knows water gun that move was obviously water pulse." he said knowingly.

Hanna growled like an animal and balled her fist, she was ready to beat this kid senseless, but her mind quickly shifted to the bet she foolishly agreed to and her face twisted outward even wider.

A shriek erupted from a girl in the bleachers "The gym is on fire!" the girl pointed to the tower of smoke steadily piling from the center of the city. Lora and Dewott nodded and quickly ran into the direction of the smoke.

Hanna watched the girl jump into action and her frown turned into a look of shock she turned to the boy who had just been her opponent before running off "I don't have time for this right now." her feet picked up speed as she ran towards the smoke with her legs pressing forward not telling her were it was they were headed.


	7. Round 7:A bag of holding

**Pokemon Next**

Round 7: A bag of holding

Huffing and puffing breath heavy and wet Hanna ran and ran towards the smoke at the center of the city roughly located where the recently closed gym should be, the people of the city were all frozen in place staring at the smoke like a deerling caught in headlights, the whole thing made Hanna's jog all the more exhausting having to use her small body to push her way through the people of the city and then as she made her stop she reached her destination, the hunch Lora had followed was correct the gym was in flames and several water type Pokemon were desperately trying to put out the flames.

Hanna noticed that Lora was nowhere to be found and frantically jumped through the crowd attempting to describe her to the people, because wherever Lora went Hanna knew the source of the problem was not far off, but a crash erupted followed by another explosion within the building a small white haired girl was being carried by a fearsome creature resembling a mound of discarded junk.

The girl rang a soft bell in Hanna's mind she could not place it exactly but she looked familiar, as did the mound of living junk and that's when it hit her a jingle, a simple three chord jingle rang through her head and she could vaguely remember this girl singing along. The girl cougghing in the arms of the monster was Roxie, before the authorities could reach the girl Hanna dashed toward her "After the explosion did you see a really energetic girl come through here? Total idiot? Completely irrational?"

Roxie was barely awake and covered in black ash and scars on her face. But the creature holding her looked down at Hanna and nudged with it's nose toward the path that lead back to the route that lead into the city "Gar." he answered with a stern look before ignoring the girl from then on out and walking slowly toward the paramedics behind her.

Hanna was soon approached by officers and firemen alike concerned and anxious "You have to back away from the building."

But she ignored them and stared at the path that lead to route twenty before looking down at Marlon in her pokeball she ran to the center only a block away rushing through the crowd she walked into the center and saw the chief Audino it looked at her with a puzzled finger to it's chin. Hanna ignored the creatures reactions and simply left Marlon's pokeball on the counter "Take care of him." she huffed the pink rabbit continued to look at her puzzled "Dino?" it inquired, before it's tone switched to a frantic and anxious shuffle as Hanna jumped the counter and let out all the Pokemon on the rack behind Audino until she found Dinah, who blasted out with a yawn.

"Trainer Hanna?" she wiped the morning residue from her eyes before noticing Hanna's sweating and flushed face but before she could speak Hanna did so for her "We have to go back to route twenty and find Lora, she did something stupid."

Dinah waddled behind her as she ran out of the center. The chief Audino was powerless to stop them having to deal with the many unreleased injured Pokemon running amok in the center.

Coming outside sirens were now roaring and things had seemingly gotten worse as the fire was spreading and larger than before, Hanna ignored the ensuing chaos and made steady tracks for route twenty, a bike was chained to the front of the center and as id her name had always been on it she ordered Dinah to break the chain giving her free access to the bike.

The path to route twenty was as expected blocked by a group of officers and their Pokemon Hanna and her newly acquired bike made it to the barrier to be stopped by the officers.

"Girl there is a situation in the forest and we simply cannot let you through here."

Hanna gave the sweetest smile she could manage, however her appearance was much less than sightly and her feminine wiles were of no use to her in this predicament.

"Kid. You look plain creepy, now please we police have business to attend to." his hand was raised as a sign of dominance that Hanna did not take kindly to, she lowered her head in defeat and bit her lip "Dinah!" she yelled and like nothing a gust of energy shot the officers and their Pokemon in different directions around the path.

Hanna peddled as hard as she could before returning Dinah to her pokeball and heading into the forest.

Everything around the trees was fading and dying the air was distinctly thick and the route had looked even worse than when Hanna had previously trekked through, the Pokemon were nowhere to be found and the trees had lost their foliage. If Lora wasn't in this forest than at least the culprit of the fire was without a doubt.

A sense of dread overcame Hanna as she reached the river where her encounter with bisharp had nearly cost her an arm, it was still stiff and ached from time to time, but she gritted and pressed on soon she found herself calling out Lora's name out of distress.

It didn't become clear until Hanna had for the first time since entering the route she had seen wild Pokemon wildly running in her direction she knew that she would soon find Lora.

And then from the trees a spurt of water shot into the air cascading into a bright rainbow, this was where she found Lora, barely standing and facing a giant purple blob with whiskers Dewott's fur was messy and covered in pulsating purple blotches he was huffing with his two arms still holding onto his scalchops he faced the monster determined.

"Dinah come out and use thunderbolt." Hanna threw the pokeball high into the air with Dinah firing off three bots of yellow electricity from her static fur each missing the purple monster that flopped around expressionlessly wiggling its whiskers.

"Damn!" Hanna cursed biting her thumb and running to Lora "You okay?" the girl looked up at her friend with a brash smile "Yeah, that thing just knocked me down no worries." in the ten heart pounding minutes it took Hanna to find Lora she was already nearly killed. Typical thought Hanna with a smirk.

"That thing. It started the fire at the gym, when I made it their it was carrying off pokeballs."

"What is it?"

Lora dusted herself off and stood beside Hanna "I don't know, never seen anything like it around before, but it smells terribly and it used sludge earlier, so common sense says its a poison type."

Hanna nodded and pointed at the creature "Dinah use psychic on that thing." Dinah focused her mind and shout out a wave of spastic energy in the direction of the creature that shook the trees around it but a massive wave of dark energy emitting from its mouth canceled out the energy around it.

"You unova trainers are something else."

From the bent trees behind the purple creature out walked a man with a dusty brown cowboy hat and matching brown vest decorated with pokeballs his voice was rough and contained a slight hint of an accent.

"This here is a Swalot native to the hoenn region."

Lora threw a nearby rock at the man which he dodged with haste "What was that for?"

"This Pokemon is yours and you used it to steal the Pokemon from the gym."

A look of surprise overcame the man "Did 'e now? That's something else, he steals extra things without me having to tell him now, all I wanted was the badge but the Pokemon are a bonus.."

Lora balled her hands into a fist and yelled furiously "Dewott use water gun on that thing!" Dewott was quick to shake off the purple sludge attached to its fur and spurt out a powerful stream of water at the beast.

"Now now girly, I thought I told you he's a Swalot." jeered the man as his companion Pokemon opened his mouth wide to receive the water Dewott shot at it "I figured you'd know from the name he's a real glutton for punishment." the beast spat the water out at Dewott but it was quickly dissolved by Dinah's timely use of psychic.

"Good job Dinah." Cheered Hanna with a pumped fist.

"Damn, I guess i'll have to take you kids serious then huh? Swalot use sludge on the Audino."

"Swa..." the beast puffed it's cheeks to ridiculous levels before shooting out a wave of murky pink goo toward Dinah, but at the last moment the sludge was intercepted by Dewott who winced in pain as it stuck to his skin.

"Now swallow that thing." The man snapped his fingers and the creature hopped over to the otter and opened it's mouth wide to swallow, Dewott did his best to run away but by this time he was badly poisoned and promptly swallowed by the creature.

"Dewott...no. Use razor shell to escape!" Lora cried but Swalot's body was dense enough that the small otters resistance only showed up as ripples on the belly of the beast Hanna was quickly beginning to panick "Dinah. Psychic!" Dinah rubbed her head and shot out another wave of psychic energy at the creature but he again shot a wave of dark energy from it's mouth canceling out her attack.

"Well, I'd certainly say you girls are clearly disadvantaged here."

The wind in the area slowly began to pick up and before long the trees were rustling and the leaves on the ground begin to float through the air and after that, sand.

The creature scratched it's head with it's deformed three fingered hand and began to look around puzzled, it's vision was being seriously handicapped by the raging storm taking place around it.

Lora quickly remembered the feeling of sand swimming through the air clouding her vision she grabbed Hanna quickly to shield her eyes.

"Dusty use metal claw!" Through the raging sandstorm Hanna could hear the voice of the boy who had defeated both her and Marlon just moments ago, his voice was welcome as was his Pokemon.

Swalot began to sniff the air in anticipation of the inevitable attack but the sandstorm had dulled his sense of smell to a point of functionality and the glowing eyes that rushed at it from the sandstorm were unpredictable, though not manageable.

The brief altercation was hard to make out through the storm but Hanna could see the poison types silhouette shoot out something from his mouth and soon the sandstorm had faded completely and Dusty had fainted with Dewott barely conscious on top of her, Dinah was in the corner holding her head with a tight grip, this was sign enough of her being incapable of battle.

The mysterious thief tipped his hat with a small grin "You kids are really that new? Don't you watch TV or read? Swalot have multiple bag shaped stomachs that they can use to store things, and thus you never attack head on."

Dusty's trainer was too afraid to speak and Hanna fought the urge to run away screaming but Lora was adamant and still as brash as ever "Why are you doing this anyways? What kind of thief steals from a gym leader?!"

The man took off his hat to scratch his head with a puzzled frown "Hm, to be honest I don't really know the answer to that question. I'm just following orders so I have no idea."

Lora's heart sunk "Then why do it at all?"

"I'm not a free man, I have a boss who gives the orders I just follow them, but enough about me . Swalot use firepunch to get rid of these kids." the man motioned the order with his hands and Swalot wiggled over just as he was told and balled his right hand into a blazing fist.

Hanna buried her head in her heads and fell to the ground "I don't want to die, I don't want to die, I don't want to die." she mumbled under her breath until she could feel tears forming in the corners of her eye.

The wind was slow and the moment was short but Lora was sure she saw it in an instant Swalot was pushed through the trees and into the river knocking all of the ingested pokeballs from it's mouth onto the ground.

"You kids were full of more surprises than I first thought." The thief turned to his Swalot and returned it to it's pokeball in a bright beam of light "But now I gotta go, all this commotion will lead the authorities right to me." The man began walking off into the forest when a black blur jumped next to him and teleported him away.

Dusty's trainer quickly ran over to her out of concern while Hanna did her best to regain her senses and Lora returned Dewott to his pokeball she peered over to Dinah who was still holding her head in pain. It was hard to comprehend this Pokemon wincing in pain was the same one who just moments ago smashed a truck sized crater into the forest.


	8. Round 8:Instant Satisfaction

**Pokemon Next**

Round 8:Instant Satisfaction

The walk back to virbank was long the distance was short but the weight Hanna felt was heavy. All the way back to the city Dusty's trainer had cried rightfully fearful for his life and all the way back Lora comforted him,encouraged him, and went so far as to thank him with a kiss on the cheek and like magic his tears dried up, it was Lora and her usual charms at work. All men seemed to act like that around her and so this was nothing new to Hanna.

The aforementioned weight came from what was in Hanna's left pocket a small purple badge in the shape of a smoke signal that spewed from Swalot's mouth along with the pokeballs, judging from the thief's expression as he left this is what he had attacked the gym for in the first place.

Skipping a battle with Roxie that Hanna felt would be an inevitable loss was as promising an offer as life would likely toss her for route's to come Dinah suffering from continuous headaches and Marlon lacking battle experience as well as needing medical attention meant that this inevitable loss would need to wait three days at the minimum and afterward she would need to show her face at the center again, by this point Joy would surely be getting tired of seeing her face looming in the lobby.

"Trainer Hanna."

The shock on Hanna's face as she heard her Pokemon speak from inside it's pokeball was thankfully hidden, as she stood at the front of the group. She flexed the mental muscles inside her brain in order to elaborate a response "Yeah Dinah?"

"I'm sorry about what I did." Whenever Dinah spoke to Hanna telepathically she sounded the same as when she spoke regularly squeaky and naive, but their was something harshly temporal in her imaginary voice this time around, it was a familiar sounding tone that she heard her mother use only once when she was no more than four years old her and a Pokemon tried to eat her with cold intent and a steady hand her mother shot the creature dead on the spot, Hanna remembered crying warm tears that fell from her cheeks, gun in hand her mother turned to her and said "I'm sorry for what I did, I just wanted to protect you."

"What are you sorry for?"

"That human, I tried to kill him."

A small smile lingered at the back of Hanna's mind before she replied "Heh, try to do that every time we battle. That was the strongest attack i've seen you use."

"Yeah..."

Hanna gave off a visible frown "I'm sorry, bad joke. I guess we should take it easy using psychic, which means your going to have to master thunderbolt as soon as possible."

Dinah was silent the rest of the walk.

As the children returned to the city they were happy to see the gym's fire was put out, the bulk of the damage went to the main hallway with all of Roxie's Pokemon surviving as well as the gyms main stage.

Returning to the center resulted in a heavy chastising from Joy who ended her reprimand with a hug so warm it made Hanna uncomfortable, uncomfortable but wholly welcome, and when her friends had gone outside she hugged Joy back just as hard.

In only a day Roxie was fully recovered and she was happy to have her Pokemon returned to her(Hanna was the lucky girl who got to do so at the insistence of Lora) after the pokeballs were in her hands she was overjoyed to have her Koffing and Venipede back in her care and played with them like a child, seeing this happen before her very eyes made Hanna feel a bit more secure about herself and think maybe she should return the badge and have a fair fight instead.

The room inside the hospital Roxie was kept in was vastly different than the rest and much larger it had a plasma screen television a personal bathroom and a snack machine unlike the others.

"By the way who the hell are you?" the cute and playful girl Hanna had seen just a moment ago was gone.

She shuffled her feet under the girls impressive glare "I just...was...around when the criminal was caught."

Roxie did her best to hold in a laugh but Koffing broke the silence first and she followed suit, Hanna's face turned red with embarrassment and confusion, that was the moment the ten year old girl in her won over and she decided to keep the badge.

Roxie did her best to compose herself motioning for Hanna to come closer "Sorry, sorry. I just wasn't expecting someone so modest to be the one to have rescued my Pokemon." she pulled Hanna to her face and wrapped her arm around her shoulder "Thanks all the same."

Hanna was brought into the second most uncomfortable embrace that day. Why were people suddenly so nice she mused "N-no problem."

The white haired girl blinked letting Hanna go from her grips "That's right, you said you were on a journey. Does that mean you want a battle with me?"

Hanna looked down and took a quick second to think of a reliable excuse, but under Roxie's strong iron gaze she blurted out the first thing that came to mind "Oh...no of course not."

"What do ya mean o'course not?" Roxie repeated "I'm the freaking leader of the gym in this city. It's why most people come here...well I guess theirs the movies, and the theme park, and the ferry. But it's mostly me"

An increasingly awkward laugh escaped Hanna's mouth as Roxie stared at her "No, you see im a photographer who travels and takes all sorts of pictures of Pokemon."

"You sure you don't even want a sparring match for luck." Roxie's tone showed her apparent disappoint, it was obvious yesterdays incident left her itching for a battle.

Hanna was becoming increasingly nervous and her laugh turned to a snorting cackle "No, I just take pictures, sorry."

"Well, can you take a few pictures of me and my band? My drummers kind of shy but he'll come around no doubt." The girls determination was very admirable.

"I'm sorry but my equipment was damaged by the thief that showed up the other day."

"Shame. Damn shame." Roxie closed her eyes and pondered for a moment before snapping her fingers and pulling out a pair of tickets from her pants "Take these." Hanna quietly took the tickets staring at them before attempting to read what was on them, but whatever the title of the film was, it was a chore to read and so she gave up and nodded "Got them for free, one of the ticket boys is a total lolicon so he gave them to me. Small thing like you im sure you got plenty of guys wanting to ask you out."

A modest smile overcame Hanna's lips "Thanks a lot..." Hanna modestly murmured.

"No problem least I could do..." Roxie stopped mid sentence as she noticed her large Venipede bending over to extend it's antennae toward Hanna " I think she wants you to shake it."

Hanna continued to smile and gently touched the bug Pokemon's antennae "Ven." the creature whistled happily.

Just then the large trash pile that had lead Hanna to the thief yesterday entered the room with a stockpile worth of berries in it's hands, she took this as her sign to leave quickly.

"Wait. I didn't catch your name?"

"Hanna Burton."

"Cool then i'll be looking around for great pictures taken by Hanna Burton." Roxie gave her a thumbs up and a grin.

Outside in the lobby Lora and the male trainer that accompanied the both of them to the forest who introduced himself as Patrick were waiting patiently reading the newest issue of 'Pokemon Snap' with mixed expressions, Lora eagerly dusted herself off and welcomed Hanna back with a smile "Did she appreciate the gesture?"

"A little more than I thought she would, I got two tickets to a movie playing tonight at some ritzy theatre."

"Ahem." Patrick let out a fake cough "If you remember we had a wager..."

"I'm sure a gentleman like yourself wouldn't let me forget."

Patrick ignored the insult and folded his hands "So I think we should just use the tickets Roxie gave you."

"Genius, absolutely original idea." Hanna shot back.

Lora did her best to not laugh and pulled Hanna by the arm "You two have a date, so i'm going to have to help Hanna get ready." she merrily danced off nearly leaving Patrick in the dust "So i'll come by the center at six?!"

"Sounds good." Lora cheerfully replied.

At the center Lora quickly took Hanna to the room she was staying in sat her on the bed and began to brush her hair "This is a good place to start."

Hanna sighed and cupped her face "This is all really annoying, I never should have agreed to that bet."

"I think that's true but you did agree to it and we Flocessy girls are true to our word."

"Lora do you ever get tired of being perfect." Hanna sighed.

The girl let out a small chuckle as she lowered the brush in her hands to the bed "I think you've got me beat in the hair department." of curious note Hanna was not entirely oblivious to the fact that Lora's hair had gotten progressively shorter which was surprising considering it was her most famous asset.

"What happened to that anyways?"

"Well speaking of being perfect, i'll have you know on the first day of my journey Oshawott was not so happy about having me as a trainer and decided to give me a hair cut. I spent the next day and a half telling him about myself so that he could get to know me."

"Hm." Hanna was very surprised to hear this story coming from Lora it was considered a given that she would have acquired a loyal and perfect Pokemon to accompany her from the get go, but instead she got a brat, this was in an odd way comforting to Hanna, Dinah was kind to her from day one and she considered this her first true victory against Lora.

"You are going to look great for Patrick tonight, don't forget though you already have a boyfriend so don't get too attached."

"Jack..." Hanna let the passing thought escape her lips, Lora ignored this and continued brushing.

The evening approached with a crawl and Hanna was none too happy about it, the sooner the date ended the sooner she could move on to the next gym, she found that in order to pass the time all she could do was gorge on rice crackers and watch bad television. The big highlight of the day was the fire in the virbank gym and something Hanna quickly waved off about tidal shifts.

Evening came and the bright lights of the city with it, Hanna made sure that she was as late as possible in the last minute hope that her date would simply stomp off and head home, but as miraculously under dressed as always there he was, sitting patiently on a bench across the street from the theater.

"Hey! I think the movie starts in like fifteen minutes." was his eventful greeting.

Hanna sighed and smiled "Oh yeah. Slipped my mind."

"But...you were the one with the tickets."

"Oh, that's right."

After an awkward greeting the two of them walked to the line in front of the theater Patrick gave her a sheepish smile "Don't worry you don't have to kiss me, I like Lora now."

"I figured as much, they all fall eventually." Hanna smirked quite bitterly as she and her date entered the theater, she bought a diet cola while her date bought a large popcorn a carton of candy cigarettes and a large cola.

A passing thought had built in her mind as the both of them took their seats and voiced it to Patrick "Hey aren't you planning to fight Roxie? You need her badge to advance after all."

"Oh. I'm not a trainer my goal is to be a breeder."

"A breeder? Then why were you in that silly mock tournament, shouldn't you be off having your Pokemon...breed or something?"

Patrick took a handful of popcorn and shoved it into his mouth before looking to Hanna "Well the end goal of breeders is to train strong Pokemon. To breed and stuff, but first I need to raise strong healthy Pokemon that will birth strong healthy Pokemon so I still need to have my Pokemon as fit and healthy as possible, I thought the tournament would be a good start."

"Don't you think _you _should be equally fit and healthy to raise these great Pokemon?" Hanna teased with a hand rummaging through Patricks popcorn.

Patrick laughed the comment off and gave a quick and precise answer "Hah don't be fooled Hanna despite my cool and easygoing attitude i'm actually a very dedicated fitness buff, this is my first time ingesting carbs in three days."

"Cool and easygoing? Well i'll be damned." Hanna took a cool sip of her drink before thinking up the next round of insults the previews for the movie came on.

The movie was a surreal horror Hanna could not exactly put a finger on what it was the plot was about, in the beginning of the film it introduced a young woman but by the end she had been killed off, several times in fact and ended with a spider jumping at the screen, Patrick at least seemed to have enjoyed the film taking every opportunity to talk about the credentials of cinematography.

After a quick exit Patrick insisted that the both of them go eat dinner, Hanna grumbled something about Dinah's injuries but was simply ignored and dragged along. This was becoming an annoying repeated occurrence in her life.

The restaurant was barely one at all, instead Patrick led the girl to a fast food burger joint. Walls covered in grease stains, value menu's and kids meals. It had all the works.

Hanna ordered a salad while Patrick stuck to miltank burgers with fries compliments of the chef who from the sounds of things was an incredibly temperamental Pawniard.

"I just love eating at places like this." Patrick cheered scarfing down his fries with a content gulp.

Hanna sat chin in hand looking out of the window as Patrick shared with her the finer details of the film, all of which she all seemed to have missed her generic responses ripe with boredom ranged from Oh wow to Cool and the occasional Yeah it was a masterpiece.

Drifting through her daydreams Hanna almost missed the sudden change of topic Patrick made "By the way what about you, aren't you going to challenge Roxie?"

"Nah I'm going to skip this gym and come back later."

"Ah my brothers a trainer he did the same thing with a few gym's so he could train."

"Yeah, that's basically what i'm doing."

Patrick took a moment to slow chewing "So...i told you like Lora now."

Hanna sighed "Yeah you were so kind to tell me."

"Well um, what kind of things or guys does she like. She told me you both grew up together so i'm sure you would know."

Hanna took a second to tap her fingers against the table as she collected her thoughts "Hm, she likes strong trainers and...hm back when we were kids she had a major thing for Wallace, but most girls do.

"Wallace huh?" Patrick murmured taking the last bite of his meal.

As promised Hanna was no longer obliged to give Patrick a kiss at the end of the date instead they separated with a handshake and the boy walked off in a direction opposite of Hanna as he apparently was camped outside of the city.

Hanna happily returned to the center as exhausted as ever, it had thankfully began clearing out seeing as how Roxie was taking requests for battles once again she was happily greeted by the chief Audino who she waved off as she walked up the stairs to her room.

To her surprise Dinah was contently sleeping on the bed with an apple lodged between her hands. Hanna smiled as she kicked off her shoes and cuddled up next to Dinah ready for sleep.

"Night." she mumbled drifting off to sleep, wary of what the next day would have in store for her.


	9. Round 9:A trip to Castelia

**Pokemon Next**

Round 9:A trip to castelia

Hanna awoke to the whimpering sounds of her audino being crushed underneath her weight, a slanted eye and a half snore later she jumped awake to realize she was crushing the poor creature and quickly jumped off of her "Sorry about that." she mumbled underneath her breath.

Dinah sat across from her head facing the ground rubbing her tummy for dear life a voice inside of Hanna's head conveyed her woe "Yeah, well that really hurt trainer Hanna." she whined still holding her tummy. Hanna crawled over on all fours and poked her with a weak smile "I'm really sorry, I had kind of a rough night."

"Really? I had a very uncomfortable morning."

"I understand your point. How about breakfast to make up for things?" The attempted bargain seemed to catch Dinah's attention as the long extensions straddling her ear raddled intensely enough that they stalked above her head like horns before she could finish nodding with a smile.

Hanna quickly put on her shoes and headed downstairs with Dinah the center was quiet, now that people weren't stuck there and trainers could get their badges and move on it had returned to being a sleepy building worth no second looks and a short footnote en route to pokestar studios. The quiet was enjoyable but Hanna could not help but miss the occasional gossip that would float across the tables at any given eating period.

Wheat toast with cinnamon and peppered eggs were on the menu this given day. Hanna ate slowly pondering her next course of action Castelia city was her obvious destination but whether or not to embark that moment was a concern. At this time Hanna had never truly won a battle and her experience had to be brought into question, she had just enough money to make it to Castelia and pay for two meals, she would have no way of returning to Virbank to train.

"Something on your mind?"

Lora came to sit down across from Hanna at the table and saw her staring at her plate chewing on the same piece of toast for too long to be considered healthy, a delayed reaction of what trickled from Hanna's lips to be reciprocated with a human response "I asked what you were thinking about."

"Nothing important."

Lora put a sly finger to her lips remembering the last time Hanna had remarked such a thing was when she had first considered becoming a trainer, now was her time to pry "What exactly entails 'nothing important' if I may ask."

Hanna's eyes fluttered for a moment looking up at the half smirking Lora a topic of divergence would need to be her course of action to get the girl off of her back for the time being.

"I was just thinking about Patrick and how cute you two would look together." stated the girl through her mouth full of toast.

Lora's expression remained the same and she simply said back "Oh, really?"

"Yeah, I mean you're rich, and he seems to have a bright future ahead of him, I think it would be best for you to find someone you like young so it won't be a problem for your family warming up to someone new."

"I'm ten years old."

"Three more and you'll be ready for children."

Lora gave an amused laugh before shooting back "I didn't know you had those sort of things in mind already, you and Jack really must have had a special relationship."

Somehow the topic that Hanna had made for the sole purpose of using to embarrass Lora backfired greatly and left her in a seemingly new and awkward position that she would not quickly get used to. Her face burning bright red she did her best to drop the topic.

"So what's next for you?"

Lora blinked twice "For me? Aren't you the one deciding where it is we go?"

Hanna was to the say the least startled by this abrupt notion of her leading some sort of group with someone she sincerely considered to be an enemy, this was a matter that needed to be cleared this instant.

"We are not traveling together." she said coldly.

The same face of unequaled comfort rest with Lora as she gave her simple reply "But at this point wouldn't you say you need a little help?" Hanna did not like the implications this was leading toward.

"Excuse me?"

"Currently you are too frightened to face the gym leader of the city and lost a battle against an opponent who you had a type advantage over from this wouldn't you say you are in need of a traveling partner? I myself am not an amazing trainer being just as new as you but I think us complimenting each others weaknesses is an important thing to look into."

There it was, just when Hanna had figured Lora wasn't so bad her patronizing holier than thou attitude returned full force. Nothing new, but that was what made it so annoying she had been this way since she was able to crawl and Hanna was none too fond of it all.

"Not going to happen, I think you doing me any favors would give a bad result. If you think I'm not doing a good enough job as a trainer then letting me figure out my own way is best." Hanna did her best to speak without growling.

Lora sighed and continued "That's fine too. The offer is always open though, the ship leaves at eleven just a reminder." the girl yawned and walked back upstairs. Hanna was happy to see her gone and swallowed what remained of the toast on her plate.

Coming to the conclusion that the showers would be occupied for a while Hanna quickly called out to Dinah who preoccupied herself with serving food to other trainers.

"Trainer Hanna?"

Shaping her right hand like a fist Hanna returned the prodding of Dinah s psychic link in a loud voice "Today is our last day in this city lets try to get as better at thunderbolt as possible."

Dinah nodded and smiled "Yeah! Oh uhm don't forget Mr. Marlon either."

Hanna gave a dumb smile and shot off the comment "You didn't think I would forget my other loyal Pokemon did you...wait Mr. Marlon?"

Dinah put a finger to her chin and nodded again "Yes he said to call him that from now on."

A light smile came over Hanna as she snapped her fingers "That's right a translator! I definitely need to get a translator."

The split second it had occurred to her that she had forgotten this translator she made it her highest priority to get one for Marlon. Stepping out of the center Hanna quickly realized how cold it was outside, above her the sun was sparse appearing through heavy black clouds that blanketed the sky leaving the whole of the city aside from the docks remain in a constant state of twilight. Still wearing her pajamas the cold was getting to her quicker than she thought it would and began rubbing her arms for warmth.

Making it to the pokemart was a welcome surprise of indoor heating that fought off the cold coming from the outside as best it could. Inside the store behind the counter was an aged man with a large build reading a magazine, Hanna approached and was received warmly.

"Hey there."

"Uhm hello sir, do you sell translators here?"

The man scratched the stubble beneath his chin "You want one for her?" the man asked pointing to Dinah who cowered behind the young girls leg.

"No I need it for- how did you tell Dinah was a girl?"

The man continued stroking his stubble before smiling at the young girl "Anyone on a journey wouldn't think of taking a male audino around as a companion."

Hanna blinked twice before noticing Dinah attached to her leg and gently pushed her off of it "Why is that exactly?"

A flushed face followed by a moment of pondering led the man to his half shaken reply "It's a double standard thing you know? Like a stereotype, most trainers have audino on their team specifically as medics. The common thought is that a male would be more likely to want to battle instead of being a second fiddle team member."

Hanna could feel Dinah's head lowering and gave her a brief pat on the head to reassure her what the man said was only public opinion, she did her best to take no offense to the previous statement and grabbed Marlon's pokeball from her side "No I need one for him." she said releasing Marlon slightly damp onto the counter top.

The man took a step back as Marlon flopped around the counter with a snide smirk "Tympole!"

"So you want a translator to go on him?"

"Yes. Those are cheaper right?"

"Well yes, collar or headset translators are much cheaper than universal translators that humans wear, the only thing is collar are fitted depending on type and a Pokemon with a finned body type might be harder to place, I'll check the back to see if we have any."

Hanna returned to Dinah and grabbed her face communicating via psychic link "Remember what that man said was only the opinion of a select few older trainers it's got nothing to do with you, you're plenty tough."

The small audio's face showed signs of her being slightly distressed but she spoke as calmly as she could manage "I know." she mentally murmured. The whole thing confused Marlon who thought the two of them were staging yet another staring contest.

After the sound of falling cardboard subsided the man returned with a small device that looked like a pair of headphones coated in a hardened gel substance. "It just so happened we had one more left in stock."

"Tym, pole." Marlon cheered in a low voice as the man fit the small machine to his round head, the man did his best to adjust the machine to the small creatures slippery body "There!" he said happily.

"Tym...huh?"

Hanna approached slowly to pick up Marlon who looked at her confused "I can...speak human?"

The girl gave a large smile and pulled Marlon closer "We call it English around these parts."

Marlon grumbled "Ah, stop it hugging is not manly."

Hanna held him away from her and smiled again "How can you talk about manly with a cute face like that?"

"Ahem." the man pretend coughed in order to regain the attention of the young girl "The collar will be forty-thousand pokedollars."

"Ah OK." Hanna set Marlon back on the counter before reaching into her wallet to hand the man the money.

"You're a pretty new trainer I take it then?"

"Yes." Hanna mumbled blinking once again.

The man pulled out from underneath his counter a small bag "Take these, a few spare vitamins and berries free of charge."

The way the man handed her the bag felt as though it was meant to be an apology for the earlier comment that left an obvious mental bruise. Hanna did not feel entirely better about the situation but the sentiment was kind enough for her to return it with thanks before she left the store still wearing her pajamas.

A short ways down from the pokemart was the entrance back to the route that led into the city, sadly it was still considered restricted due to the thief fiasco,and so the border would have to do. Same as before she set up discarded bottles and cans along the fence post separating the city from the route.

"OK. Dinah we are going to try this one more time-" As energetic and steadfast as she was Hanna was still caught off guard by Marlon shooting out from his pokeball and appearing infront of her still swearing his translator "Give me a chance boss." he squeaked.

Hanna put her right palm to her forehead, looking at Dinah it was obvious there was a lot on her mind and even morose she was obviously tired, Marlon's moment of selfishness may not have ever come at a better time, the only problem was Hanna was selfish too and felt that having an electric type attack would help more than training Marlon.

A fight between the three of them was deemed a meaningless effort in the end and Marlon got his wish of his own training session.

Two hours passed before Hana returned to the center showered and retrieved her clothing in time to head for the dock. Without Lora of course.

The ship was crowded with trainers and travelers all headed for Castelia, along the docks several frillish waved happily as the passengers boarded the vessel with happy smiles.

Hanna herself was just as happy as anyone, the stagnation that had overcome her journey up to this point was annoying, even more so was having Lora by her side the entire time, oddly she had not spotted the girl since boarding the ship.

The ship was full of eager trainers happily chattering with each other and their pokemon and even more eye-catching was the gambling room at the center of the vessel with slot machines lined against the walls and tables covering the floor, the bright lights of the room mesmerized her almost instantly.

Before she could gamble all her money away however she needed to place her belongings in what was known as the luggage bay, a small steel room with small cubbies that held all of the traveling items of the passengers along for the ride as they enjoyed the boats services.

Along the hallway that lead back to the hall a graceful swanna danced through the skies outside the windows, for just that moment Hanna really wished she could have afforded a camera.

Returning to the gambling hall with nothing but her wallet and pokeballs Hanna found herself itching to throw her money away. At the moment she had singled out a nice slot machine away from the crowd of gritters selling pristine she sat down with a cup full of coins and just as she prepared to insert the first coin a voice as angelic as humanly possible with a tone as wicked as any demon devoured her from behind "You ditched me just to gamble?"

"No I ditched you so that I could have _fun _gambling."

"Only ten years old with a habit that dangerous already. They really should enforce laws on things like that."

Hanna finally turned to face her assaulter Lora stood hunched behind her with their faces a mere inches apart from one another, so close it was hard to tell that she was now wearing glasses, and as far as back as she could remember Lora did not wear glasses.

With a frown Hanna clicked her teeth and said as plainly as possible "New fashion choice?"

Lora smiled eagerly and adjusted her glasses doing her best impersonation of a secretary "These are all the rage in Castelia city. A gentleman I met on the boat told me so."

Watching someone she knew so well who was considered as ever intelligent be scammed by a grifter gave Hanna a small sense of bitter comfort that she did her best to make unapparent as she turned to place a coin in the slot machine "Yeah...they look great on you."

Lora giggled before sitting in the slot machine next to her turned to face Hanna's machine "You know I think that's the nicest thing you said to me. Ever."

Hanna grumbled "That's not true I said I really liked the ponyta you got for your seventh birthday party."

"The one you attempted to steal and lead into the forest on a rampage?"

"That's the one."

A click resonated as the slot machine began to tumble and before long each and every slot landed on an ekans, this was wholly discouraging, oddly though instead of being tempted to leave or switch machines Hanna was eager to enter more coins.

Lora sat legs crossed chin and hand with a disappointed frown "If you put any more in your just going to keep losing until your dry of assets."

"Yeah I know, casinos must be twice as fun." Hanna scowled back.

Hanna reached into her pocket and grabbed another coin still agitated and prepared to insert it into the machine when her hand shook wildly and she dropped it onto the ground.

"Am I going crazy?" she asked looking down at the dropped coin.

Lora next to her on high alert frowned and said "No. The ship shook."

Just as she finished speaking another wild thump resounded from outside the ship followed by another shake.

"Damn. Why now? I was going to win big."

Lora grabbed her hand and dragged her outside to the deck of the ship. A group of large dark blue giant dancing snowflakes surrounded the ship flying around shooting out ice beams that crashed into the sides of the ship.

"Those things...are they making miniature icebergs?" Lora asked frightened as she looked up at the creatures dance around the sky.

Hanna clenched the pokeballs at her side and bit her lip "This is going to get really annoying."


	10. Round 10:A brave bird

**Pokemon Next**

Round 10:A brave bird

The deck of the ship was fully surrounded by the flying snowflakes who were now obviously attempting to sink the ship with its passengers distressed for far too long to be comfortable it was now time for an offense and the trainers spared no expense some sending out entire teams.

Choices for fighting teams were for the most part obvious trainers sent out fire types mostly with a small legion of tepig attempting to blast them out of the sky to no avail.

Lora still holding on to Hanna's arm squeezed even tighter as she threw out her pokeball containing dewott she screamed affirmatively "Razor shell now!" dewott shot out from the beam of light emitted from his pokeball with his scalchops at the ready he flew toward the monsters and slashed a group of two lowering their mobility to just above the ground.

As he was quite the ferocious fighter it was apparent to the group that of monsters that amongst the low level pokemon he stood out and as a proper countermeasure he was swarmed "Dew?" he chirpped puzzled by his new predicament.

Hanna was quick to see realize the situation and released Dinah from her pokeball "Thunderbolt." she commanded, Dinah nodded silently and summoned as much supercharged static as her fur would hold and shot out three bolts of bright neon electricity that hit three of the creatures that surrounded dewott and knocked them into the ocean below with a splash, he looked to her and said in a proud voice "Dewott." from afar they looked like soldiers bantering in the midst of battle.

Hanna took hold of the moment and cheered for Dinah from afar "Hah. So that's the trick to mastering thunderbolt, large groups means more to hit."

Lora forced a smile "Whatever works, I suppose."

Despite the strong efforts of both Lora and Hanna the creatures came in larger numbers than fresh out of the gate trainers could handle and the ship was slowly being seized by the creatures, they started with using ice beams to freeze the pokemon into submission and then proceeded to freeze the deck and were currently attempting to freeze the passengers.

All the while the waters around the boat had become impendingly treacherous as the group had come together to create a set of artificial icebergs for the ship to collide into along its course. From the interior of the ship came the captain who Hanna vaguely remembered was the virbank gym leaders father, his left arm half frozen he struggled to speak to did so at his own urgency "Everyone, stop fighting! It's futile, there are too many of them we have to get to the lifeboats before the ship sinks."

One of the younger trainers turned to him and stuck out his tongue childishly "You kidding? We got to kill these things before they kill us, we won't make it If we don't fight back."

Next to him a young girl folded her arms and gave a similar response, the captain approached the children and slapped the both of them before picking them up against all forms of protest, the wild shaking of the children ripped off pieces of the ice covering that the onlookers hoped wasn't flesh.

"I'm the captain of this ship dammit, I don't have time to deal with everyone's egos. It is my job to get you all out of here alive, and I do believe that is possible, if we head for the boats now."

The captains pluck had moved the other young trainers into action and they had all decided to follow him inside, behind the passengers the creatures hovered behind ominously red eyes glowing bright and firing beams of ice at the trainers.

By now the creatures had figured out that focusing on a center point was a better tactic than attacking the humans one at a time and with this they successfully created a wall of ice blocking the pathway.

"Psychic!" commanded Hannah pointing toward the block of ice, Dinah shattered the wall witch a quick blast of energy, the debris created a cool mist that seemed to obscure vision within the cramped hallways.

As the group ventured deeper the monsters continued onward chasing after them a stray beam of ice decimated the floor ahead.

The captain growled at the head of the group and began speaking under his breath "Outside...those are cryogonal, this isn't like something they would do."

Lora overheard and asked "What exactly do you mean?"

"cryogonal are very unassuming and docile, they would have needed someone or something to rile them up to get like this."

The roar of cryogonal were not willing to wait and continued as before without remorse rhyme or reason the rain of ice beams were shot at the center of the passengers group and froze a good number of them in place, the rumbling from outside continued just as before and helped in separating the groups.

Lora did her best to thaw out the frozen trainers to the best of her ability but soon found the task to be much more difficult than she first realized.

Hanna in the midst of the chaos had forgotten that her badge case was still inside the storage room and found this to be the best opportunity to retrieve it. The captain in his half awake state did what he could to get everyone as organized as possible.

"Everyone stick as close together as possible, those with fire types lead the front of the line." he abruptly ordered and without struggle the trainers present complied and held the front line with mostly starters.

Lora continued to thaw out the frozen trainers but her effort was futile the captain and those that followed him both realized this and one young trainer at the back of the group grabbed her arm "We can't save everyone, we don't have the time."

Lora refused the young girls arm and pushed her away still attempting to melt the ice that covered the trainers "How can you say that? You're just being selfish because you still have a life to live, and you don't think these people do."

The girl just looked at her with a scowl as the captain interjected "She's right, this ship has maybe ten minutes left to float, after that it sinks and you'll still be trying to thaw these people out. C'mon, please." his voice was soft and the girl felt she had no choice, she was defeated and even more so she could not let her journey end here.

In the moment it took Lora to rethink her actions and cooperate with the rest of the group she looked around to notice Hanna was missing. Hanna was in fact running as fast as her feet would carry her to the storage bay, she gave a split second glance of sadness as she passed the gambling hall and thinking to herself how she would not be able to exact revenge on the machines.

The storage bay had no signs of being frozen and minimal signs of water leakage coming from the rest of the ship, her backpack was to the far right of the room and surprisingly completely intact she could not help but hug the bag tightly before leaving the room to see a figure dancing in the air of the halls.

Whatever it was it couldn't be a cryogonal it was too graceful too large and carried to distinct a shape. Hanna decided to follow the creature until it turned around and shot out a blast of wind shaped like a buzz saw, the attack was so fast that Hanna only barely dodged it and figured it was meant as an obvious warning shot. Clicking her tongue she continued to follow the creature as it began to squawk through the hallway.

And then it turned again this time diving straight forward with its body and long beak pointed at Hanna, again she only barely dodged it by doing a combat roll and dropped the contents of her backpack onto the floor, but she for split second got a full view of the creature and was now prepared to attack.

Dropping Dinah's pokeball and releasing her with a yawn "Trainer Hannah? We are still on the ship?"

Hanna gave her a worried look and nodded "Yeah we may not be getting off too soon either."

From the far end of the hall the attacker returned to hover above the both of them with cold and menacing eyes Dinah looked up at the creature puzzled "A swanna?" the creature did not respond and shot out a blue straight beam from it's beak that Dinah barely dodged as it traced the floor beneath her with thick ice.

"Thunderbolt!" shouted Hanna swanna was quick to dive down as a countermeasure but Dinah had already begun dispersing electrical charges all over the room, and because of the tight spaces within the halls they moved extremely fast.

Swanna forfeited his attack and returned to a more elevated position before flying away into the game room with a squawk "Follow him Dinah."

"Why are we fighting him trainer Hanna? Were we not running away from the snowflake monsters before this. Hanna spoke in between huffing and puffing "Yeah at first, but I think that guys the leader, we saw him a few days ago in the forest and before the attack started, I think he's following us."

"Did we hurt one of his friends?"

Hanna exhaled "Hurt one of his friends? We haven't hurt _anybody _this whole trip." she said in a tone that was a mix of annoyance and disbelief.

Entering the game room the swanna perched itself onto a slot machine near the entrance and made a low guttural sound reminiscent of growling as it looked upon the both of them with disgust. Raising one wing above it's head triumphantly it began to speak quite enthusiastically "Swann, swanna. Swa!"

Hanna raised a brow in confusion as she listened to the bird rant "What the hell is he saying?"

Dinah scratched her head "I don't fully understand. He is saying we must be terminated for the company."

The explanation did a miraculous job of leaving Hanna even more confused than before, but swanna himself decided that was unnecessary, it now raised both of it's wings above its head with it's chest puffed out and slowly reentered the air. This was a declaration of battle without a doubt.

"Use thunderbolt again." Dinah complied and shot out three burst of electricity that followed swanna along a hackneyed path that nearly hit him several times but mostly sparked the lights of the corners ceiling, before finally blowing out one of the lights and creating a large hole in the ceiling.

The countermeasure for this attack was another strong slash of wind that hit the ground beside Dinah and sent her into a barrel roll that helped her dodge once again, but the bird was ahead of her in this battle, it dove to the ground with wondrous precision and speed and pierced her stomach hard enough to leave a horizontal scar that bled on the floor as she was knocked into the wall of slot machines behind her.

Returning to the sky with a chuckle swanna prepared his second attack on the recovering Dinah and barred his long beak once again diving straight for her, but his body lost momentum as his wings were scarred with a blast of incredibly high pressured water that knocked him into the wall with a loud thud as he completely smashed the machine that worked as his cushion.

"Dinah hurry and heal yourself Marlon will fight until you can fix yourself." Hanna ordered with the motioning of her hands, Marlon sat on her shoulders with a stern look on his face, she pointed her index finger out like a gun "Keep your eyes on my finger." she said, just as swanna had regained wing control from the rubble and taken to the air once again she cried out "Water pulse!" at the top of her lungs Marlon fired off the blast of water like a rifle but missed.

"Swa!" screeched the bird as it fired off an ice beam that grazed Hanna's right arm as she again took to running, she grabbed her arm in pain but remained focus "Don't give him time to recover, use psychic Dinah."

From the walls the slot machines were being tossed at swanna who gracefully dodged them all, though his preoccupation made him susceptible to another bout of water pulse from Marlon and he was hit and smashed into the ceiling, his left wing showed signs of intense bruising by now.

Marlon who's translator was still attached to his head took this time to gloat "Hah, ya see that boss? That duck has no chance against me and the fuzzball, not even a small one."

Hanna chipped off the remains of the ice that covered her arm, in time to not have lost any sensitivity, in fact the ice left a cold burn that she did her best to resist touching.

Another heavy shaking tantrum erupted through the ship and knocked Hanna to the ground. The ground felt very slippery all of a sudden, and before she knew it she was falling to the rear wall where Dinah was resting, and then it hit her. She was too late. The ship was officially sinking.

"What now boss?!" Marlon chirped from her shoulder as they lay against the wall of the ship. Hanna's face did not show it but she was in a fully panicked state by this point, she felt as though her life was soon to be over.

"Dinah how is your head feeling?"

Dinah herself shook off the last of her wounds and crawled on all fours to Hanna to speak to her via psychic link "My headaches are completely gone for the moment."

"OK I need you to do your most powerful psychic ever. I want you to lift us all up through the hole in the ceiling.

She was hesitant but felt the courage Hanna had mustered to have asked this of her and gave a strong nod before putting both of her hands to the center of her forehead, her eyes began to glow a strong blue as she concentrated Marlon felt himself without a sense of gravity and began to float.

Hanna cheered as she felt herself without gravity "Yes Dinah! You did it." she was quickly propelled upward through the hole at the top of the ship, but was followed by swanna who growled angrily behind them as they shot to the portion of the ship that remained above water, from far up in the sky Hanna could see lifeboats heading back in the direction of virbank city.

More ominous though were the massive group of cryogonal who circled the sinking ship with glowing eyes. Swanna gave up the pursuit but instead flew to the center of the circle where the cryogonal had hovered and began to yell at them.

"Swa! Swanna, swaaa!."

"Eh, this is bad." Marlon chirped gulping.

Hanna looked over to him as they were lowered onto the still sinking ship "What's happening?" she asked fearfully.

Dinah removed her hands from her forehead and obviously drained of all energy motioned over to the girl panting "They are all going to create a storm, now that the ship has sunk they are going to kill all the humans that were on board."

In the sky swanna's eyes began to glow and it's wings stretched out wide, it began to cry out "Swa!" the group of cryogonal beside it danced around it with their glowing red eyes, storm clouds began to form above, and the clear blue sky had disappeared for good.

"Swa-" the bird was met with a large impacting ball of fire that knocked it out of the sky and into the sea below. Hanna sitting on the sinking deck of the ship followed the trail of fire and smoke to see that it led back to one of the small lifeboats in the distance, though no pokemon were visible from where she could see.

In actuality the passengers of the boat were Lora and the captain who had just fired a flare gun with his nearly destroyed arm the pain he felt was obvious as he clenched his teeth, Lora did her best to bandage his arm with her blouse, but the numb pain he felt was a clear indicator he would get no use out of it any longer.

"Captain, we are getting in signal tracing distance we can make a call soon and get help." Lora reassured rubbing the captains arm tenderly.

The man just rested on his back and gasped for air "That's good. We can get help for the people in the other lifeboats too, a lot of them have similar injuries. I'm the captain of the ship so they are going to need treatment first."

"Why would you say something like that?"

"As the captain it is expected of me to sustain injuries in the stead of those on board... don't act so stupid that's sailors code one-o-one."

Lora just frowned at the man as he closed his eyes to catch his breath, but he very suddenly jerked and pushed Lora into the water, as she felt herself being pushed away by the waves she looked at the lifeboat intensely confused, as she soon noticed though, swanna had dove out from under the water and attacked the captain.

Murderous intent ruled the birds eyes as it ferociously pecked at the man with its long beak, the captain used the last of his strength to swat the bird off only to sustain more injuries to his hand.

The swanna suddenly clenched down hard on the man's hand and refused to let go until he had ripped it off completely.

A devious smirk took over the captains face as he readied the flare gun once again, he pulled the trigger with a grin as wide as his muscles could manage and shot the swanna all the way back to the ship cooking in a blaze of fire, it hit the ship with a thud so hard it disrupted Hanna's balance as she attempted to stand and all the way there it screamed in pain "Swanna! Swaana!"

It's feathers had grown tedious his body tired and his mind wicked, fanning off the flames with a strong gust of wind swanna looked back at the lifeboat with the captain and shot forward like a jet plane. The captain smiled warmly as the bird approached and removed his hat dropping it to the ocean where he felt it belonged and thought aloud "Well I guess I don't have a ship to captain anymore. So I can't go down like a sailor, but I did save a pretty young girl, so hopefully I can at least be remembered as a good person."

Swanna's beak collided with the man's abdomen so quickly that it looked as though he flew through him he shot into the ocean with a trail of blood following him as he descended with a smile plastered on his face, he could not remember where he was or what had transpired up to this point, his pulse had faded completely.

Without missing a beat swanna returned to his arbitrary course and flew to the center of the ring of cryogonal and continued his rain dance with one last triumphant squawk "Swanna!" to bring forth clouds so dark that they blanketed the sky with a disastrous storm that rippled through the seas.

"Damn!" Hanna cursed as felt the ship going all the way under, she regretfully returned both Marlon and Dinah to their respective pokeballs with a "Sorry." before organizing her things and sprinting for a lifeboat.

Lora's heart sunk as the water around her was stained with the red blood of the captain she lay motionless floating, her body was full of tears that refused to come out, she looked down at her own insignificant hands in disgust and covered her face.

Dewott released himself from his pokeball suddenly and grabbed her tight, swimming toward the lifeboat as the waters around them raged he saw the captain's corpse sinking below him and turned his head away, he successfully tossed Lora inside of the lifeboat and braced for the storm, she cried and he had no way of stopping it, it was the lowest point of his day.

Swanna hovered over the wreckage as the cryogonal dispersed he watched silently as the raging storm destroyed the lifeboats beneath it and the waters crashed atop the screaming human's he was not as he had portrayed himself thus far. With his wings burning and his body battered he simply flew onward past the wreckage without so much as a word.


End file.
